Indian pastor, 4 others jailed for religious conversion
Updated: September 26, 2024 12:17 PM GMT
Uttar Pradesh police arrested Pastor Gerald Massey Mathews under a sweeping anti-conversion law
Five people, including a pastor, have been jailed for religious conversion in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.
Police said Pastor Gerald Massey Mathews of the Dasna Church, and the others were arrested for converting people under the pretext of curing their illnesses and offering their children a quality education.
Uttar Pradesh is ruled by the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which enacted a sweeping anti-conversion law in 2020.
“The police arrested Pastor Mathews and others on Sept. 23 and kept them in custody for more than 24 hours and on Sept. 25 sent them to jail in Dasna without giving any details,” Christian activist Minakshi Singh told UCA News on Sept. 25.
“The police have kept us in the dark,” said Singh, general secretary of Unity in Compassion, a charity based in Uttar Pradesh.
The Christian lay leader said the sweeping anti-conversion law was enacted by the right-wing government without “proper study.”
According to news reports, the complaint against the pastor and the others was filed by Naveen Singh, coordinator of the Dharam Jagaran Samanvay Samiti (Forum for Hindu Awakening).
The complaint said they had been conducting religious conversion for a long time by luring people with promises of admission into schools for children.
Some were given job promises, the complaint added.
The pastor and others were arrested while they assembled to perform religious conversion in Sevanagar village.
A few locals protested against the arrest.
Poonam Mishra, additional commissioner of Nandgram police in Uttar Pradesh, said in the preliminary investigation the allegations of religious conversion were “found to be true.”
The government amended the sweeping law in July this year which was passed by the state assembly in August.
Under the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion (Amendment) Bill, 2024, anyone can file a police complaint whereas only conversion victims, their parents and other close blood relatives can do so under the existing law.
Penalties will also get tougher, with life imprisonment now a possibility in cases of forced conversions.
The law will come into force once the state governor Anandiben Patel gives her nod, which is just a formality.
In Uttar Pradesh, Christians constitute a mere 0.18 percent of its 200 million population.
