MUMBAI, India – In India, a court in the state of Uttar Pradesh court acquitted the accused men – Abhishek Gupta and Kundan Lal Kori – of charges of “unlawful conversion.”
The northern state has India’s largest population – with over 241 million people – but only has 356,000 Christians, just 0.18 percent.
According to the Indian Express, on May 29, 2022, when Himanshu Patel, a resident of Sakatpur village in Bareilly and district president of Hindu Jagran Manch, accused Gupta, a resident of Gorakhpur and former employee at Rohilkhand Medical College, of running a conversion programme with a team of eight people in Bichpuri village.
Gupta, who was posted in the CT scan technician at the Rohilkhand Medical College in Bareilly from 2007 until his arrest in 2022, lost his job and was charged in the case under the sections of the UP Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021.
On May 29, 2022, Patel alleged Gupta was holding a prayer meeting at a house and converting Hindus assembled there through various allurements. Patel claimed that 40 persons who were being allegedly converted unlawfully were found at the spot.
After he raised the alarm, Patel said a group of 10-15 members of local Hindutva groups reached the village along with police. Patel alleged that copies of the Bible were recovered from Gupta and others. Kori was later made an accused in the case even though he was not identified by the complainant.
This story was originally published in cruxnow.com. Read the full story here.