Police on Friday arrested 26 people over allegedly illegal religious conversions of 90 people in the last 40 days in the district, police said.
The arrests were made following the registration of a case on a complaint by a Vishva Hindu Parishad office-bearer Himanshu Dixit, who alleged that around 90 Hindus have been illegally converted to Christianity by the ‘Evangelical Church of India’ in the Hariharganj area, Deputy Superintendent of Police Dinesh Chandra Mishra.
On Dixit’s complaint, an FIR was lodged at the Kotwali police station against 55 people, including 10 women, under various sections of the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, DSP Mishra said. The accused are said to be members of the Evangelical Church of India, he said. A search is on for 29 other accused, the DSP said.
Thirty-five people were named in the FIR. Efforts are on to identify the remaining 20 (of the 55 accused), he said, adding that the arrested ones are those named in the FIR. The FIR was lodged following a ruckus at the church in the Hariharganj area on Thursday evening.
A prayer was called by people of the Christian community at the church. Some people from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal reached there in the evening alleging that unlawful conversion of Hindus was being done, DSP Mishra said.
Senior officials of police and district administration reached the spot to ensure law and order following the altercation there at the church, he added.
This article first appeared on news18.com