Indian Christian educators denied bail in conversion case
The Lal brothers are accused of funding mass conversion activity in northern Uttar Pradesh A photograph of an event underway at the Evangelical Church of India Church in Fatehpur in Uttar Pradesh's Harihar Ganj district A top court in India’s northern state of Uttar Pradesh has denied anticipatory bail to two top Christian educators accused of mass conversion. Rajendra Bihari Lal, the vice chancellor of Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences, and his brother, Vinod Bihari Lal, who serves as the director at the university, had moved an application in the Allahabad High Court seeking anticipatory bail when police summoned them for interrogation earlier this month. Justice Manju Rani Chauhan of the Allahabad High Court on Feb. 28 noted that there was material evidence against the duo and hence their application “stands rejected.” Police have been investigating a complaint of mass conversion reported at Harihar Ganj in the state’s Fatehpur district on April 14, 2022, which happened to be the Maundy Thursday. The judge while elaborating on the grounds for rejecting their bail application said the intent behind the charitable works undertaken by the Lal brothers appears to be dubious, affecting the lives of marginal sections of society as reported in the alleged case
Indian pastor, wife held for alleged religious conversion
Activists say police in Uttar Pradesh arrested the couple after being pressured to do so by a Hindu mob Christians pray during a Good Friday service in Delhi on March 30, 2018 Indian police have arrested a Protestant pastor and his wife for allegedly indulging in religious conversions, say Christian leaders. Police in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, where a sweeping anti-conversion law is in force, arrested Pastor Santosh John and his wife, Jiji John, on Feb. 26 based on a complaint by Bajrang Dal, an ultra-Hindu outfit. “Pastor John and his wife were summoned in the morning for questioning and were freed later in the evening. But they were arrested after a mob protested in front of the police station,” Minakshi Singh, a Christian activist, told UCA News on Feb. 28. John and his wife were holding a prayer service in a rented basement in Indrapuram in Uttar Pradesh near India’s capital New Delhi when the mob created a ruckus and accused them of religious conversion. The couple appeared before a magistrate on Feb. 28 and were denied bail. Singh, general secretary of Unity in Compassion, a charity based in Uttar Pradesh, India’s largest state, said, “Pastor John and his wife are lodged in the
