New Delhi: Promises of marriage to beautiful young women, money and food, as well as jobs at Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences (SHUATS) — all these were used to induce both Hindus and Muslims to convert to Christianity in Fatehpur district, according to the Uttar Pradesh Police.
The whole operation was backed by two brothers, SHUATS vice-chancellor Rajendra B. Lal and director Vinod B. Lal, the police have claimed in an affidavit filed before the Supreme Court last month.
The case dates back to 14 April, 2022, when a local Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) office-bearer lodged a complaint with the police against the pastor and other associates of the Evangelical Church of India, alleging that they had lured and converted “around 90 Hindus” over a period of 40 days with promises of financial assistance and jobs.
On 15 April last year, police booked 55 people — 35 named and 20 unnamed — and also made 26 arrests under sections of the UP Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021.
The FIR also invoked various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion), 506 (criminal intimidation), 420 (cheating), and 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating).
On 4 March, the Supreme Court stayed the Lal brothers’ arrest after they appealed the Allahabad High Court’s 28 February order denying them anticipatory bail. The court, while giving them interim protection, also sought the UP government and police’s response.
The police affidavit, filed in response to the anticipatory bail application, claims that a pastor of the Evangelical Church of India in Hariharganj, Fatehpur — the religious institution that’s been caught in the middle of the row — had admitted to mass conversions by “fraud and allurement”.
According to the police, the foreign funds that SHUATS, a private university in Prayagraj, received were sent to the account of the Yeshu Darbar Trust — an NGO that holds religious congregations in at least 12 of its centres in Prayagraj and other cities of UP, Gujarat, and Jharkhand. They were then allegedly distributed to pastors involved in “unlawful conversion” of marginalised Hindus and Muslims.
According to investigators, Rajendra Lal is the founder-bishop of the Yeshu Darbar Trust.
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‘Renaming converts, changing Aadhaar cards’
In their affidavit opposing the brothers’ anticipatory bail application, the UP Police have claimed that since 2005, SHUATS had received more than Rs 34 crore from its foreign sources but that despite repeated requests, the brothers had refused to disclose where the money was being used.
The affidavit claims that the pastor had “admitted” that one conversion was completed in 40 days and that such conversions were also attempted at a mission hospital with the help of its staff.
It’s unclear which hospital the affidavit is referring to.
The police go on to claim that searches conducted at the Yeshu Darbar Trust’s offices in Prayagraj and other places following orders from the chief judicial magistrate (CJM), Fatehpur, led investigators to video CDs that showed one of the brothers and his wife conducting such “conversions”.
“In the aforesaid case, audio and video of renaming of young Hindu kids is very clear,” the affidavit says, adding further: “In the same way, it is seen in the other CD that a programme of religious conversion and naming in accordance with Christian religion is being conducted.”
Aadhaar cards were changed in accordance with the converts’ new names, the affidavit says, adding that statements of such converts — recorded by police investigators as well as the magistrate — substantiated this.
The police also cite a few witness statements to buttress their allegations. According to the affidavit, one witness claimed he received Rs 20,000 for every converted person, while another claimed he was told to visit the church every day for 40 days, after which he was informed that he had been converted.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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