Couples booked for conversion case
The Barabanki police arrested a Lucknow-based couple on Tuesday (August 1) for forcing villagers to convert to Christianity. When the couple -- Harendra Singh and Priya -- organized a prayer meeting in a rented room in Navjyoti area of Hydergarh area of Barabanki, some locals alerted the police.
“The couple was arrested for allegedly luring innocent villagers to their rented room and asking them to convert to Christianity. Police also found Mahaveer Singh of Gangapur Sansara village in Hydergarh and two teenage girls of Ghorkoya village taking lessons from the couple. Hydergarh SHO Lal Chand Saroj said that religious texts and books were recovered from them.
Saroj said locals claimed that the couple visited the place regularly and converted around a dozen people by offering them money and jobs. The couple works in a Christian missionary organization based in West Bengal. Saroj said that the FIR was registered on the complaint of a resident of the village.
In the past seven months, around 70 people have been arrested in Uttar Pradesh for forcibly converting villagers to Christianity. 35 people were arrested from Bahraich alone. In June, 31 people were booked in seven separate cases in connection with allegations of forced conversions in rural areas of Uttar Pradesh.
