In Photos: Many Anti-Conversion Arrests in UP Defy the Law They Are Based On

We give you a summary of The Quint's investigation of how the anti-conversion law is being applied in Uttar Pradesh.

Several pastors have been arrested in the last three years on charges of forceful religious conversion.

(Aroop Mishra/ The Quint)

The Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act was passed as an ordinance in November 2020 and then assented as an Act in March 2021. Since then, several people have been arrested for forceful religious conversion in the state. But an investigation by The Quint, spanning through multiple districts of UP has revealed a major loophole. Many of the FIRs and subsequent arrests in cases of forceful religious conversion go against the very law that they are based on.

Pastor Nathaniel (in white) was invited by Bahadur Maurya (in green) in 2021 to hold prayer services at the latter's home every Sunday. 

At one of the prayer services, the police showed up and arrested pastor Nathaniel and charged him with forceful religious conversion. 

The complainant was a neighbor, Sudhir Gupta, who is a local BJP leader. 

The UP anti-conversion law categorically states only the aggrieved or a relative can be a complainant.

But Sudhir Gupta was neither the aggrieved, nor a relative. He told The Quint that he was never subjected to forceful conversion and never attended any of Nathaniel's prayers. 

Unlike Sudhir Gupta, Shyam Sunder Sonkar and his wife were regular attendees of pastor Nathaniel's prayers. They say there were no attempts to forcefully convert.

Pastor Nathaniel's is just one of several anti-conversion cases in which the complainant in the FIR is an unrelated third party — who hasn't been subject to any forceful conversion. Yet their complaints led to arrests. 

Take the example of Gaurish Singh, of the Hindu Jagran Manch, who interrupted a Christian prayer taking place in Varanasi and accused the pastor of forceful conversion.

The pastor, Neel Durai, ended up getting arrested and spent many months in jail.

Gaurish told The Quint that he was never subject to forceful conversion by pastor Neel, only that he suspected that a conversion was occurring. As per the anti-conversion law, Gaurish couldn't have been the complainant. He was not the aggrieved or a relative. 

Similarly, in Jaunpur, Pramod Sharma's complaint led to an arrest of a Christian man. But Pramod was not the aggrieved or a relative and so, cannot be the complainant, as per the law. 

Lawyers say such arrests are illegal.  "The entire legal process of arrest based on a complainant who is not recognised by that statute would be lacking the authority of law and therefore, the arrest would be illegal," Supreme court lawyer Vrinda Grover, said. 

The UP police officers insisted that "the complaint can be filed by anyone, not necessarily the aggrieved." However, that is not what the law says. 

The police's negligence shows up in other ways too. In Azamgarh, an FIR was filed against a man called Harku Ram for forceful conversion in 2022.

But when The Quint tracked down Harku's residence, we found that he has been dead since 2010. This is his death certificate. 

The police later added his grandson's name in the FIR and arrested him. But the grandson, Chandresh, says he is not a Christian. "So how could I force others to convert to Christianity?"

The rampant filing of cases in the anti-conversion act has led to the creation of 'serial complainants'. Like this fruit seller in Azamgarh, Jitu Sonkar, who enjoys 'busting' Christian events and getting them raided. 

You can watch the full documentary here:

And you can read the full story here.