After conversion complaint, cops book 8
ALLAHABAD : The police booked eight people attending a Christian prayer meeting in a temporary enclosure at Ahladpur village under Sarai Akil police station in Kaushambi district on Sunday.
The police took the action after a group of people complained about religious conversion.
An eyewitness claimed nine activists of a right-wing organisation barged into the meeting, threatened the gathering, went away for a while and then returned with a police team from the Sarai Akil police station.
Superintendent of police, Kaushambi, Pradeep Gupta told HT: “After receiving complaints from a group of people that religious conversion was under way, we booked eight people under Section 151 of the Indian Penal Code.”
Section 151 of the IPC pertains to ‘knowingly joining or continuing in assembly of five or more persons after it has been commanded to disperse.’
However, Gupta did not disclose the identity of those who had informed the police about the alleged religious conversions.
“The police, despite repeated pleas by the nearly 300 people who had assembled for the prayer meeting, took nine people to the police station where the activists misbehaved with them,” the eyewitness claimed.
Sone Lal, a farmer who was leading the prayer meeting is among those booked.
He said: “Around 300 assembled as usual on Sunday morning. Suddenly eight to nine people barged in and demanded stopping of the prayer meeting.”
“When we tried to tell them that we were not doing anything wrong, they threatened us. After 20 minutes, they returned with the police who took nine of us to the police station. One Kaushal Kumar, 16, was a minor. Hence the police let him go and booked the rest of us under section 151,” he said. Many people attending the prayer meeting were Hindus who said they had started attending such meetings after having witnessed miracles in the lives of their friends and acquaintances.
Sone Lal, who was born a Hindu but accepted Christianity 12 years ago, said he used to be a drunkard and his wife had been mentally ill but “after I came to know about Christ, my life changed. I gave up drinking, my wife became normal and now we are living a happy life with two children.” He has been preaching Christianity ever since.
Nitesh Kumar, another person booked under Section 151 of the IPC, said, “I was doing nothing wrong. I am a Hindu. My son was dying due to the lack of blood formation caused by a bone marrow disorder. Doctors had given up hope and told me that the only treatment was available in America. I used to give blood to my son four times a month. Sone Lal prayed for my son several times and the ailment finally disappeared. Now my son is leading a healthy life. I will attend the prayer meeting every Sunday.”
“Nothing wrong was done at the meeting,” he reiterated.
Similar disruptions took place at Kaushambi’s Birner village, eight kilometres from Ahladpur, on October 29 and November 5.
Sanjay Kumar, who was leading the prayer meetings at Birner, said, “We were just holding routine Sunday morning prayer service when people arrived with police. They asked us to stop the meeting and took five of us to Sarai Akil police station and booked us under section 151 IPC. We were not converting any person or criticising any other religion. Praying to the Almighty in any form is plain worship of the Supreme. I committed no crime. It is my fundamental right.” Sanjay said all the five people had got bail.