A pastor, his wife, and their three-year-old son have been imprisoned in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh after holding a prayer service in their home. Pastor Harendra Singh and his wife Priya were taken into custody charged with ‘luring innocent people to Christianity’. The couple had no choice but to bring their young child with them into prison. This family’s plight is the latest in a series of arrests involving believers in Uttar Pradesh. One Christian leader lamented, ‘The situation has reached such a stage that holding a prayer service or reading the Bible at home can land you in jail.’ Arrested That same day another pastor, Amarjeet Ram, and 14 other Christians were arrested during a prayer meeting in Balapur village. And seven other Christians were arrested separately in two incidents in other districts of the state over the same period. State law prohibits religious conversion through allurement, force, or coercion. But given the law’s catch-all wording and its intent to discriminate against religions other than Hinduism, baseless accusations can lead to charges even when no inducement has occurred. Uttar Pradesh ranks as the state with the highest level of persecution against Christians in India. Successive states have passed similarly worded anti-conversion laws and there