Child sex abuse case against Fr.Lawrence in tribal Vadodara

A photo from the school blog

Vadodara, 5 February 2013

A police complaint has been filed against Christian missionary school operator Fr. Lawrence Louis Rodrigues in Kwant police station of Vadodara district for sexual abuse of a child. The Christian organization run school is located in Vejalpur village near Waghodia in tribal dominated east Gujarat.

Fr. Lawrence is accused of sexual abuse of a child from Randha village. The child is a student of standard 9th. According to a police complaint, Fr. Lawrence not only sexually abused a tribal child, but also threatened him that if he revels it, he will be thrown down from the top of the building.

The whole matter came to light only after the victim child complained about extreme pain in his private part of the body. The complaint was filed in Kwant on 2 February, and it was later transferred to Waghodia police station. According to PSI Goswami, Lawrence is still at large.

Christian missionaries are active in this area and there have been regular complains about religious conversion of tribal people. Fr. Lawrence runs a Devkrupa ashram school where tribal children sing Christian prayers and pray Mother Mary and Jesus in school functions.

Check the following links to know more about the Devkrupa Ashram school activities:

The school hosts Year of faith celebration, tribal children participate in it

The school celebrates birthday of ‘heavenly mother’, the children garland mother mary

The school celebrating Marian night

The school celebrates feast of St. John Marie Vianney

On Terence Pereira’s birthday, the school children (boys and girls) perform ball dance