Bareilly: A court here on Friday sentenced five people to life imprisonment for assaulting and trying to kill toll booth employees in 2019.

Sunny, Sumit, Vinod Maurya, Rajat Gangwar and Ankit were sentenced for trying to kill toll booth employees on the Bareilly-Nainital highway in Bhojipura by running a car over them in 2019, District Government Advocate Digambar Singh said.

Additional Sessions Judge (Fast Track Court) Ravi Kumar Diwakar also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on each of the convicts.

While delivering the verdict, the judge said not paying the road tax would weaken the economic condition of the nation and by their act, the convicts challenged the authority of the state government.

Such people who create an atmosphere of fear by committing such incidents in public places are also enemies of the general public, hence such criminals should be given strict punishment, the judge said.

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New Delhi: The Catholic Bishops' Conference of India on Thursday slammed RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat for his reported remark that Pranab Mukherjee, when he was President, had said tribals would turn "anti-national" if there is no "ghar wapsi"Catholic Bishops.'

In a statement issued here, CBCI, a body of Catholic Bishops, referred to reports which said Bhagwat, at an event on Monday, claimed that Mukherjee, while he was President had appreciated ghar wapsi and told him that had it not been for the Sangh's work on reconversion, a section of Adivasis would have turned "anti-national".The CBCI called the report "shocking".

"Fabricated personal conversation being attributed to a former president of India and its posthumous publication with the vested interest of an organization with questionable credibility raises a grave issue of national importance," the CBCI claimed.

"Is it not the violent ghar wapsi program of VHP and other similar organizations, curtailing the exercise of freedom of conscience of economically deprived tribals, the real anti-national activity?" it asked.

'Ghar wapsi' is a term used by the RSS and affiliated organisations to refer to reconversion of Muslims and Christians to Hinduism, based on the belief that they were originally Hindus before converting to other religions.

The CBCI also questioned why Bhagwat did not speak about it while Mukherjee was alive.

"We, the 2.3 percent of Indian citizens who are Christians feel extremely hurt by such manipulated and motivated propaganda unleashed," it said.

In a post on X following the statement issued by CBCI, Trinamool Congress leader Derek O'Brien said, "Speak up. This is a start!"

"Bishops body have issued a statement condemning remarks made by Dr Mohan Bhagwat and RSS for defaming the Christian community," he said.

O'Brien added that they should ask Prime Minister Narendra Modi more questions, including why Christmas Day has been turned into "Good Governance Day".

The TMC leader, in a blogpost earlier this month, had said "hard questions" must be asked to the government with regards to the Christian community, including why the FCRA has been 'weaponised', and why has Manipur been 'ignored'.