By Matters India Reporter
Ghazipur, May 2, 2023: An 18-month-old girl and her mother were on May 2 granted bail eight days after they were jailed for indulging in alleged conversion activities in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.
The District Sessions Court of Ghazipur granted the bail to Manju, wife of Pastor Kirubendran of the India Mission, and her daughter.
They were in judicial custody since April 24 along with four others, including two pastors, for allegedly violating a state law that restrains religious conversion.
The child was not charged but had to go to jail with her mother.
The accused are residents of Kasimabad town in Ghazipur district. The police arrested them on April 23 after some rightwing activists alleged the Christians’ Sunday prayer meeting was for religious conversion.
Bupendra Singh, the complainant, who claimed to be incharge of Akhil Bharatiya Kshetriya Mahasabha, said the accused allegedly offered 50,000 rupees to each villager who attended the prayer gathering if they converted to Christianity.
The accused allegedly also promised employment and miraculous healing of the sick besides making objectionable comments against those following Hinduism.
Police charged them with relevant provisions of the state’s stringent anti-conversion law.
Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state in India, recorded 149 incidents of persecution against Christians in 2022, according to the latest report of the ecumenical United Christian Forum.
The state topped the list of states where Christians witnessed violent attacks.