Kanpur: The Uttar Pradesh police on Friday registered a case over alleged forced conversion in Meerut after a local BJP leader mobilized complainants — mostly push-cart vendors who live in local slums. Nine people have been accused of forcing them to convert to Christianity in exchange for their earlier help during the Covid-induced lockdowns.
The accused encouraged church visits and forced the slum dwellers to destroy idols of Hindu Gods, the police complaint filed by one of the slum dwellers says.
According to the First Information Report (Police FIR), the people who had helped started telling them that there is only one God — Jesus Christ — and asked them to visit the church and pray to him. The complainants were asked to stop worshipping Hindu Gods and only pray to Christ.
“They also forced us to change our names in our Aadhaar cards. When we were celebrating Diwali, these people entered our houses and tore pictures of Hindu Gods and said we should pray to Christ now that we have converted,” the complainant alleged, adding that the alleged intruders started demanding ₹ 2 lakh each when they protested. The accused named in the FIR are Chhabili alias Shiva, Binwa, Anil, Sardar, Nikku, Basant, Prema, Titli and Rani.
(Vinayak)
