Balrampur police has arrested a pastor for promoting illegal conversion on pretext of providing health benefits, education and money. The arrest was made following the police received a complaint from a local woman who has alleged the said pastor for influencing his husband and others for embracing Christianity through lure.
As per the complaint of the victim woman, the accused pastor Ranjit Bada, a resident of Jhingadad Karji has been inciting the villagers including her husband for conversion by promising them a life free from sickness and poverty after embracing Christianity.
The victim in her complaint has further alleged Ranjit, who has been residing in Laduwa village of Balrampur district for 3 to 4 years for running an impermanent Church in his house, a place he use for inciting the villagers for conversion. The said pastor has reportedly convinced a section of the villagers in following Christianity who also attends weekly meetings called by Ranjit on every Sunday.
She further has alleged Ranjit for luring people with health facilities, money and quality education for children, according to the victim her own husband has fallen prey to his false promises and has started attending the weekly meetings.
In her written complaint the woman has disclosed that her husband under the influence of Ranjit has been pressurising her to embrace Christianity leading to regular strife in the family.
Following the complaint, the police arrested the pastor and booked him under section 299 of Bhartiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS) and other relevant sections of the Chhattisgarh Freedom of Religion Act. The accused pastor was later produced before the court.
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It is worth mentioning here that despite inclusion of stringent provisions in the anti-conversion law by the incumbent government, cases linked to illegal conversion have been keep surfacing from the remote regions of the state inhabited largely by the tribal population.
In a similar case reported by Organiser from Balrampur itself, the police had apprehended as many as six people for allegedly promoting illegal conversion in the guise of providing relief from sickness in the bordering region on May 19.
The matter come to the fore after the victim, Phoolkunwar, a resident of Basantpur police station limits near the Uttar Pradesh border, filed a complaint against the accused for allegedly luring her into embracing Christianity under the guise of treating her husband.
According to the details the accused had promised the victim to treat her husband if she embraced Christianity. The victim woman was also lured with money and invited to a Changai Sabha (A religious gathering linked to promoting Christianity and offering prayers).
However, sensing the ploy behind the invitation, the victim women contacted the police and narrated the whole incident, following which a police team raided the spot and detained as many as six accused, including three women.
A case under Sections 3 and 4 of the Chhattisgarh Freedom of Religion Act 1968 was also filed against the accused persons after they failed to provide any prior permission for organising such a gathering.
It must be noted that earlier, the Organiser had also reported about a similar incident linked to inciting a gathering of the locals to embrace Christianity in Balrampur district itself in January this year.
It was then surfaced that as soon as the programme commenced, the speakers started preaching about the miracles of praying in the Changai Sabha while showing the Sanatan Dharma in a bad light at the same time. They (speakers at the programme) were also allegedly luring the people with money to embrace Christianity and promote conversion.
The incident came to light after one of the members associated with a local Hindu outfit unknowingly visited the site of Changai Sabha in Ward No. 3 of Balrampur town following which he immediately informed the other members of the Vishwa Hindu Mahasangh who subsequently halted the gathering by arriving on the spot.
It was then reported that the Sabha was called in the house of one of the neighbors of the said youth, where people from the neighboring state of Jharkhand were also invited. Upon receiving the information, a police team then detained five people, including the owner of the house where the gathering was organised.
It is to be noted that cases pertaining to illegal conversion have been keep coming to the fore from separate regions of Chhattisgarh at regular intervals, often triggering sharp reactions from the local Hindu community who have time and again reiterated its demand for a stringent anti-conversion law in the tribal dominated state.
