By Matters India Reporter
Lucknow, Feb 6, 2023: A priest of Lucknow Catholic diocese was among seven people remanded to judicial custody on February 6 for allegedly trying to convert poor Hindus.
Father Dominic Pinto and others were presented before the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate in Barabanki, some 90 km northwest of Lucknow, capital of Uttar Pradesh state. The arrested included five Protestant pastors.
The court remanded them in judicial custody.
Father Pinto is the director of Navintha, the pastoral center of Lucknow diocese, that was used by the Protestant pastors and around 100 Khrist Bhakts (followers of Christ) for their routine prayer meeting.
The arrest took place on February 5 after they were accused of trying to convert the poor to Christianity.
The arrest took place after Hindu radicals protested in front of Navintha that comes under the Deva police station in Barabanki district.
The First Information Report named 15 persons, including five women, as accused.
The arrested are charged under the provisions of the state’s anti-conversion law and, if found guilty, they could be imprisoned for a maximum of 10 years.
“Our people are arrested based on totally baseless charges,” bemoans Father Donald de Souza, chancellor and spokesperson of Lucknow diocese.
He told Matters India that Father Pinto was not even attending the prayer gathering as it was a Protestant program. “Our priest only gave the building for their meeting.”
The diocesan official said they plan to move a fresh bail application for Father Pinto’s release.
“The only crime of Father Pinto was that he allowed them to hold their prayer meeting in the pastoral center,” Father de Souza explained.
He said Khrist Bhakts and Protestants used to conduct such prayer gatherings in the pastoral center. “There was nothing like religious conversion as was alleged,” he added.
A Hindu leader, Brijesh Kumar Vaishya, in his police complaint accused the Christians of alluring poor Hindus, especially from Dalit communities, to become Christians.
Father de Souza alleged that the protesters even tried to assault women present at the center, but it was foiled. “They even staged a protest in front of the police station demanding to name the priest in the FIR as one of the accused.”
Persecution against Christians witnessed a sharp rise recently in Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state in India.
“Christians are arrested and sent to jail dubbing their routine prayer services as religious conversion activities, based on totally false complaints,” said a Christian leader who did not want to be named.
Uttar Pradesh accounted for 287 of the total 687 incidents of persecution against Christians reported from across India during January-November, 2023, according to the United Christian Forum, a New Delhi-based ecumenical group.
Christians form only 0.18 percent of Uttar Pradesh’s more than 200 million people, 79.73 percent of them Hindus.
We must seek the help of Christian countries to intervene for injustice done against Christians,might be write to them and also show evidence
Excess of religion takes every nation to Dark Ages. Mediocre people make a big deal out of religion, display it and talk about it always.
Sadly India remains a poor, undeveloped country with few achievements. So the people, large majority of them Hindus, make Ram Mandir the equivalent of a life time achievement.
Christians in India can be as stupid as the Hindus. They are not concerned about their poverty, not bothered about misuse of church funds, but will surely protest when the police take action against conversion of poor Hindus to Christianity.
It is high time for the Catholic clergy and bishops to do a sincere introspection on what and where it went wrong. It is a “warning bell” for other pastoral centres.
Section 4 of the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act 2021 says: “Any aggrieved person, his or her parents, brother, sister or any other person who is related to him or her by blood, marriage or adoption, may lodge a First Information Report (FIR) of such conversion, which contravenes the provisions of Section 3.”
Therefore what has to be contested first is whether the FIRs have been filed by the relatives (blood-relatives, etc) of the persons alleged to have been converted. FIR lodged by any body else will stand cancelled on technical ground.
Section 3 says: “No person shall convert or attempt to convert , either directly or otherwise, any other person from one religion to another, by use or practice of misrepresentation, force, undue influence, coercion, allurement or by any fraudulent means or by marriage , nor shall any person abet, convince or conspire such conversion. Allurement also includes employment or free education in reputed school run by a religious body!”
The maximum punishment of ten years is applicable only if there is proven attempt to convert a minor, a woman or a person belonging to scheduled caste or schedule tribe, and also in case of Mass Conversion (of two and more persons) in contravention of Section 3. The offences are non-bailable.
The most unfortunate part of this law is that unlike other laws, the burden of proof that the alleged religious conversion did not take place, is on the accused, in this case Fr Dominic Pinto and the other six persons arrested along with him. It’s a big test of the Unity Octave initiative.
Again National Lawyers Forum of Religious And Priests (NLFRP) of India comes up in the mind.