Christian devotees participating in a prayer meeting in the city of Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh (Photo: Facebook)
By UCA News reporter
Aug 3 2023
A Protestant pastor, his wife and their three-year-old son have been jailed in a northern Indian state for holding a Sunday prayer service at their home.
Pastor Harendra Singh and wife Priya Singh were arrested by the police and remanded to judicial custody on July 31. The couple had to take their son along with them to jail.
Children up to six years are often forced to live with their incarcerated parents, especially mothers who are the primary caregivers, in Indian prisons.
A police team arrived when the couple was holding a Sunday prayer service at their residence in Haidargarh, a town in Uttar Pradesh’s Barabanki district.
The police said they had received a complaint alleging the pastor and his wife were luring innocent people to Christianity.
Singh denied the charge but the police took him along with his wife and son to the police station for questioning and arrested him.
They were charged with violating provisions of the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Law, 2021, and produced before a local court the following day.
“It is unfortunate that their three-year-old son also had to go to prison with them,” said Dinanath Jaiswal, a social activist assisting persecuted Christians in legal matters.
A Christian leader who did not want to be named said persecution of Christians has become a routine affair in Uttar Pradesh.
“The situation has reached such a stage that holding a prayer service or reading the Bible at home can land you in jail,” he said.
The couple was among 15 Christians including three pastors who were arrested and sent to jail in separate incidents reported from the northern state on July 30, Christian leaders said.
Pastor Amarjeet Ram and five others from Balapur village in Ghazipur district too were arrested for holding a Sunday prayer meeting.
A local court turned down their appeal for bail and remanded them to judicial custody.
“In two other incidents, five Christians were arrested and sent to jail in Azamgarh district and two others in Jhansi district,” Jaiswal told UCA News on Aug. 2.
Jaiswal said he was preparing to file appeals in higher courts to ensure the arrested Christians were released from jail.
“It is disgusting that people are being jailed for exercising their constitutional right to follow a religion of their choice,” he added.
Uttar Pradesh’s anti-conversion law prohibits change of religion through allurement, force or coercion. India’s most populous state is ruled by the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party and tops the list among states where Christians face increased prosecution.
New Delhi-based United Christian Forum (UCF), an ecumenical body that records Christian persecution across the country, has recorded 155 incidents of violence against Christians in Uttar Pradesh during the past six months.
During the same period, a total of 400 incidents of persecution against Christians were recorded in the country, said UCF.
Christians make up a mere 0.18 percent of Uttar Pradesh’s more than 20 million people, mostly Hindus. – UCA News
