Pastor Roshan Faster, two others were arrested on June 4 for holding a home prayer service in the central Madhya Pradesh state
The faithful from Delhi archdiocese pray during a rally on the Palm Sunday on April 4, 2017. (Photo: Bijay Kumar Minj)
A court in a central Indian state has granted bail to a pastor and his female associate 10 days after they were arrested on charges of religious conversion under the sweeping anti-conversion law.
A sessions court in Satna district in Madhya Pradesh on June 13 granted bail to pastor Mayaram Ningwal and his companion Aarti Saket.
But pastor Roshan Faster, who was arrested along with pastor Ningwal on June 4, is yet to be released from jail, Christian activist Minakshi Singh told UCA News on June 14.
Singh, general secretary of Unity in Compassion, a charity based in neighboring Uttar Pradesh, said that the bail pleas of all three persons were rejected on June 6 but two of them secured it on June 13.
They are charged with the Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act, 2021 after the Bajrang Dal (warriors of Lord Hanuman), a hardline Hindu outfit, disrupted a prayer service held in a house owned by Saket, a resident of Motwa village in Satna district, alleging they were involved in conversion activities.
The Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act prohibits unlawful conversion by use of misrepresentation, force, and allurement. Violators face a prison term of up to 10 years.
Singh said that “atrocities against Christians are mostly reported from the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-run governments who often accuse Christian missionaries of religious conversion.”
Eleven Indian provincial states, like Madhya Pradesh and the largest Uttar Pradesh, have enacted a draconian anti-conversion law which is often used by the fringe elements to target Christians.
Nabore Ekka, president of the Delhi region of the Bharatiya Adivasi Sangamam (Indian indigenous people’s forum), told UCA News that “allegations of religious conversion are often false.”
“Who has documented the case? If they have, let them bring it into the public domain,” observed Ekka, a native of Madhya Pradesh.
Ekka said that when religious conversion is misused by the pro-Hindu party, tribal people and the Dalits (former untouchables) suffer because “they are the ones who are targeted by the fringe elements to bring them back to the Hindu fold.”
The Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), the parent organization of the BJP, runs a nationwide Ghar Wapsi (homecoming) program on the grounds that all Christians and Muslims in India are descendants of Hindus.
Christians make up 2.3 percent of India’s 1.4 billion population, but in Madhya Pradesh, they constitute a mere 0.29 percent of the state’s more than 72 million population.
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