Pastor in India forced to flee his home after enduring ‘merciless torture’ by police
A pastor in northern India was forced to flee his village after police detained him, his wife and three children, one of whom is 2 years old, and tortured him for sharing the Gospel.
Pastor Sanjay Kumar Bharati and his family moved more than 600 miles away from his village in Shyampur area of Uttarakhand state’s Haridwar district, Morning Star News reported, adding that police had unofficially ordered him to leave the village.
Bharati and his family were detained on June 13 on a complaint of violating COVID-19 restrictions. But as they tortured him, police only interrogated him about his conversion to Christianity and his preaching of the Gospel.
“As soon as I was taken inside the police station, a policeman slapped me three or four times on my face and punched me in my stomach,” the pastor was quoted as saying. “He hurled curses and accused me of alluring people and converting them.”
Bharati recalled that he was then taken to an inner room where he was ordered to lie face down on a bed. An officer then beat him on his legs and feet with his belt.
“Hell broke open on me as they mercilessly tortured me for 30 to 40 minutes. I begged them to spare me; repeatedly I asked them, ‘What was my fault?’”
The officer asked the pastor, “How much money do you give to allure people to change their religion? Tell us, from where do you receive funds? Who funds you?”
