Pastor, Family in Ruins after Baseless Charge in India

Pastor, Family in Ruins after Baseless Charge in India

Pastor, Family in Ruins after Baseless Charge in India: In one of the most recent instances of Hindu radicals abusing “anti-conversion” legislation, a poor pastor named Pastor Bajarang Rawat in India was imprisoned on spurious charges of fake conversion on September 21, 2023, despite a judge’s admonition of the police.

In Mohanlalganj, Lucknow District, in the state of Uttar Pradesh, Pastor Bajarang Rawat, a 47-year-old Hindu convert, is accused of persuading people to convert by “allurement,” despite the fact that police could not locate any witnesses against him and the only thing they had to go on was his Bible, according to the pastor.

“Reprimanding the policemen, the magistrate told them that it was not a crime to possess a Bible and that he himself has a Bible at home,” Pastor Rawat told Morning Star News. “The policemen stood silent, but even after this conversation, I was sent to jail.”

Pastor Rawat was detained on July 16 and accused of violating the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021, for “attempt to convert…by use of misrepresentation, force,” before being released on bail on August 7.

The next day, police drove him to the District and Sessions Court, Barabanki, where the judge asked the reason for his arrest and was told they had confiscated a Bible from him.

His wife and two daughters, who are now 3 and 10 years old, were on the verge of hunger in the weeks that followed, but police were under strong pressure to file charges against him from Hindu nationalist government officials, he claimed. After Hindu radicals destroyed his sales kiosk and forced Pastor Rawat to leave the region, he has not yet been able to secure a source of income.

There was not a single witness who could confirm any form of allurement, either to the police, the mainstream media, or Hindu nationalists who were present with the policemen. The radicals, meanwhile, accused Pastor Rawat of brainwashing people “so much so that they stop worshiping idols.”