By Matters India Reporter
Bilaspur, April 20, 2023: A top court in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh has granted bail to 10 Protestant Christians who have been languishing in jail for nearly four months for allegedly inciting violence.
The Bilaspur High Court on April 19 released on bail the pastors and evangelists and directed them to cooperate with the police probe against them.
Chhattisgarh is among several states that have reported increasing persecution against Christians.
Son Singh, a lawyer who argued the Christians’ case, confirmed to Matters India on April 20 the latest high court order. The court had earlier granted bail to three others arrested along with the ten.
The ten would be out of prison in a day or two after completing the legal formalities, the lawyer added.
“They were implicated in a false case in which they had practically no role,” Singh explained.
They faced serious criminal charges such as rioting, rioting armed with deadly weapon, voluntarily causing hurt to public servants on duty, criminal intimidation and assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty.
In case of conviction, they could get maximum punishment of 10-years in prison.
The Christian leaders, according a Church official, were arrested in the first week of January 2022 amid violent clashes between two groups of indigenous people – one following traditional tribal practices and others who had become Christians — under Ekda police station in Narayanpur district.
The Church official told Matters India on condition of anonymity on April 20 that the ten were framed in the case after they visited those who had become Christians in the violent hit villages.
Violence against indigenous people following Christian faith flared up in Narayanpur and Kondagaon district by the end of 2022 with several people wounded and more than 1,000 forced flee from their villages.
A fact finding team comprising human rights activists, lawyers and journalists that visited the two affected districts December 22-24, 2022, reported that social boycotts and violence had forced hundreds of indigenous tribal Christians to flee their homes.
The team also suspected right wing Hindu groups behind the persecution against the Christian tribal people. The report further said nearly 18 villages in Narayanpur and 15 in Kondagaon districts were attacked. Many people were wounded in public beatings for refusing to give up their Christian faith
“As the violence continued some tribal Christians gathered and retaliated against those who had unleashed violence against them at the end of December 2022 and wounded some of their assailants,” the Church leader said.
As a result, hundreds of villagers on January 2 armed with wooden sticks and iron rods marched into Sacred Heart Church in Narayanpur district headquarters and destroyed everything in it despite presence of police personnel.
Soon after this incident the Protestant Christian leaders were arrested and remanded in jail, apparently, to appease the majority traditional animist religion followers, he added.
Several fact-finding teams visited the violence-hit areas and accused the Congress led state government of failure to protect Christians, who form less than 2 percent of the state’s 30 million people.