![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/cdn.christianpost.com\/assets\/img\/icon\/chat-rect.svg\")
<\/a>![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/cdn.christianpost.com\/assets\/img\/icon\/share-outline.svg\")
<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n![](\"https:\/\/cdn.christianpost.com\/images\/cache\/image\/13\/89\/138988_w_760_507.webp\")
<\/source><\/picture>NEW DELHI \u2014 Not even a judge\u2019s reprimand of police spared an impoverished pastor in India from being jailed on baseless claims of fraudulent conversion, one of the latest examples of how Hindu extremists misuse \u201canti-conversion\u201d laws.<\/p>\n
Pastor Bajarang Rawat, a 47-year-old convert from Hinduism in Mohanlalganj, Lucknow District in Uttar Pradesh state, faces charges of converting people by \u201callurement\u201d even though police could find no witnesses against him, and the only evidence they presented was his Bible, the pastor said.<\/p>\n
\u201cReprimanding the policemen, the magistrate told them that it was not a crime to possess a Bible and that he himself has a Bible at home,\u201d Pastor Rawat told Morning Star News. \u201cThe policemen stood silent, but even after this conversation, I was sent to jail.\u201d<\/p>\n
Released on bail on Aug. 7, Pastor Rawat was arrested on July 16 and charged at the Loni Katra police station under the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021 for \u201cattempt to convert \u2026 by use of misrepresentation, force, undue influence, coercion, allurement or by fraudulent means.\u201d<\/p>\n The next day police drove him to the District and Sessions Court, Barabanki, where the judge asked the reason for his arrest and was told they had confiscated a Bible from him.<\/p>\n The following weeks left his wife and two daughters, ages 3 and 10, near starvation, but police had received intense pressure from Hindu nationalist, government authorities to prosecute him, he said. Pastor Rawat has yet to find a source of income after Hindu nationalists ruined his sales stall and he was forced to leave the area.<\/p>\n Police and the news media and Hindu nationalists who accompanied officers could not find a single witness testifying of any kind of allurement. But the extremists blamed Pastor Rawat for brainwashing people, \u201cso much so that they stop worshiping idols,\u201d they said. One Hindu nationalist told officers, \u201cHe has been preaching about a foreign God and spreading a foreign religion,\u201d the pastor said.<\/p>\n Police confiscated all his songbooks and his Bible and took him to the Haidergarh police station. After questioning him and holding him for a few hours, officers let him go. That evening, however, police reached Rawat\u2019s make-shift house \u2014 a shed covered with plastic sheeting \u2014 and again told him to accompany them to the police station, ostensibly to collect the confiscated songbooks and Bible.<\/p>\n \u201cI insisted on following them on my bicycle because I would face a transportation problem while returning, to which they said they would drop me back as well,\u201d Pastor Rawat said.<\/p>\n He was arrested and detained at the Loni Katra police station. An officer showed him videos that the police had recorded of the people who attended his church and praised him for doing a noble job, the pastor said.<\/p>\n According to Pastor Rawat, the officer told him, \u201cYou are doing a noble work by working for the community. I can see that people themselves are giving witness to the healings they have received, but there is a lot of opposition and pressure that is coming from the authorities.\u201d<\/p>\n Pastor Rawat said officers told him that he need not worry, that he would be released in three days, and that those who had harassed him for no reason would be prosecuted.<\/p>\n \u201cBut nothing of that sort happened,\u201d he told Morning Star News in a low tone. \u201cI was sent to jail and was kept inside for 23 days before I was released on bail.\u201d<\/p>\n In the prior four years, police had regularly monitored Pastor Rawat\u2019s activities but always responded positively to the people who gathered for worship at his place.<\/p>\n But Loni Katra police arrested Pastor Rawat, who ran a stall beside his shed where he sold petty items at a railway crossing, on the complaint of Vijay Hindustani. Hindustani alleged that Pastor Rawat was involved in alluring people to convert to Christianity with the help of a dozen unidentified people.<\/p>\n The day of his arrest, six or seven officers accompanied by about 12 Hindu nationalists and a few news reporters with cameras and microphones arrived at his place at 11:30 a.m. while he was leading Sunday worship, Pastor Rawat said.<\/p>\n The news reporters asked congregation members questions about their faith, reasons for their gathering and whether they were offered any allurement, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe people boldly stepped forward to give amazing testimonies of healing that they and their families have encountered, and they refused to deny their faith,\u201d he said, noting that as a poor man without a proper home and job, he had nothing to offer people besides his prayers.<\/p>\n Spontaneous church plant<\/strong><\/p>\n About 50 to 60 congregation members gathered in the open beside his makeshift stall every Sunday for prayer to hear the Word of God, but the church began without him intending to start it, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cOne day someone visited me on a Sunday and found my family in devotional prayer,\u201d he told Morning Star News. \u201cThey joined us, and in this way, people began to flock every Sunday knowing that they would find us praying and they would get prayed upon.\u201d<\/p>\n Area Christian Anand Masih said Rawat never went to school and could barely read, \u201cbut God\u2019s anointing was so much on him that he began to read the Bible and preach a strong and powerful message.\u201d<\/p>\n As people began to come and receive healing prayer, the church grew, Pastor Rawat said. In addition, he would offer to pray for people who stopped by his sales stall and share about their problems and illnesses, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cMore than 300 people have come to me for prayers, and God has been so kind that all have received healing without any exception,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Different police patrols questioned Pastor Rawat at various times about the gatherings, to which he would reply, \u201cWe gather to pray to Jesus,\u201d and they would say that was fine, he said.<\/p>\n Family devastated<\/strong><\/p>\n Christian leaders heard about Rawat\u2019s unique ministry and his arrest and sought his release on bail.<\/p>\n Munish Chandra, the pastor\u2019s attorney, said he was not aware when the pastor was arrested.<\/p>\n \u201cWith much difficulty, we traced his wife and daughters, who were living in a dilapidated shed,\u201d Chandra told Morning Star News. \u201cThey had no food to eat. Their condition was beyond what I can describe.\u201d<\/p>\n Pastor Rawat\u2019s wife, Shashi, said she was left homeless after he was taken to the police station.<\/p>\n \u201cThose who opposed us forced me to leave my house along with my children \u2014 they even broke our stall,\u201d Shashi told Morning Star News.<\/p>\n She found a room where she and her daughters could stay as they struggled to survive. Pastor Rawat said she gave what little savings they had to an attorney for his bail, \u201cso she did not have anything to survive on\u201d before Christian leaders found her.<\/p>\n The team of Christian leaders helped Pastor Rawat\u2019s family and procured his release on bail on Aug. 7. He and his family moved to an undisclosed location with rented living quarters.<\/p>\n His congregation members found out where he was and continued to visit him.<\/p>\n \u201cFamilies are still coming for fellowship, prayer and to hear God\u2019s Word, but they all come individually and not in a group,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Police have not returned his Bible and songbooks. One of his church members asked how he would teach, and how they would sing praises, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cGod\u2019s Word fills my heart, and His songs are on my lips \u2014 even if they have taken away my Bible, I can still preach,\u201d Pastor Rawat responded.<\/p>\n The hostile tone of the National Democratic Alliance government, led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, against non-Hindus, has emboldened Hindu extremists in several parts of the country to attack Christians since Prime Minister Narendra Modi took power in May 2014, religious rights advocates say.<\/p>\n India ranked 11th on Christian support organization Open Doors\u2019 2023 World Watch List of the countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian. The country was 31st in 2013, but its position worsened after Modi came to power.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/cdn.christianpost.com\/images\/cache\/image\/15\/04\/150436_w_400_524.webp\")
<\/source><\/picture>![](\"https:\/\/cdn.christianpost.com\/images\/cache\/image\/15\/04\/150437_w_400_533.webp\")
<\/source><\/picture>