India: Pastor kept in jail for 23 days on anti-conversion charges with no witnesses

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Bowing to pressure from Hindu extremists, and with no evidence or witnesses, authorities in India’s Uttar Pradesh state charged Pastor Bajarang Rawat with forcibly converting Hindus to Christianity, and jailed him for 23 days before releasing him on bail, Morning Star News (MSN) reports.

Pastor Rawat, of Mohanlalganj, Lucknow District in Uttar Pradesh, is a former Hindu who converted to Christianity, MSN reports. Married with two young children, Rawat began preaching the Word of God to a congregation of around 50 people beside his makeshift home and the stall from which he scraped a living selling cheap knick-knacks.

At the behest of Hindu extremists who accused him of “brainwashing” Hindus, Rawat was arrested on July 16 and charged at the Loni Katra police station under the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021 for “attempt to convert … by use of misrepresentation, force, undue influence, coercion, allurement or by fraudulent means, MSN reports.

Rawat was taken into custody and brought before the District and Sessions Court, Barabanki, MSN reports. The prosecution offered no evidence to support the charges, only that a Bible was found in the pastor’s possession. “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,” Rawat told MSN. “The policemen stood silent, but even after this conversation, I was sent to jail.”

Rawat’s accusers went on to dismantle his stall, leaving his wife and children with no means of support, facing starvation, until Christian leaders found and helped them, MSN reports. Rawat is now awaiting trial.

Ruled by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, India ranks 11 on the US Open Doors World Watch List 2023 of top 50 countries where Christians are persecuted.

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