Tags: Bhubaneswar

Bhubaneswar, Sept 16 Conversion cases in Kandhamal between 2004-2007 far exceeded the official records of just two, the judicial commission probing last year's riots in the district was told today.

"There were many cases of conversions but few intimated the district administration," former Kandhamal district magistrate cum collector Gangadhar Singh told the Justice S C Mahapatra Commission probing the largescale communal violence that followed the killing of VHP leader Laxamananda Saraswati.

Refusing to comment on whether conversion was a cause of violence in Kandhamal last year, Singh who was the DM of Kandhamal from September 15, 2004 to October 3, 2007, said during cross-examination that though there was a register at the collector's office recording cases of conversion, only two intimations regarding conversion were registered in the district in January, 2004.

"The statutory provisions of the Orissa Freedom of Religion Act (OFRA) were not followed", he said, adding that there were no prosecutions as no complaint had been made against conversion, he said.

The census figure, on the other hand, showed rise in the size of population of all religious groups in Kandhamal, he said. .

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