Pastor arrested on false charges in Jabalpur

A Pastor working with an independent Christian organisation was arrested yesterday on false charges in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh.

Reporting to Christian Today, the organisation spokesperson, Mr. Cherian said, "Pastor Sam Oommen of ' Kripa Prarthana Bhawan', branch of Full Gospel Church, has been serving the Christian community with church based and social services. He was arrested on false charges of conversion and allurement."

According to Cherian, the police arrested the pastor and his wife, on a complaint by an individual who received baptism and later turned hostile. Before the arrests, a mob of 50 Bajrang Dal activists shouting Hindu chants accused the Pastor of forcible conversion and demanded an arrest.

"Yesterday at around 3:30 pm police came to the church premises and took the pastor and his wife with their two small children under custody. The church has been locked and is under police guard," he said.

The pastor has been charged under section 295/4A. Although efforts are underway to bail out the Christian leader, no headway has been made.

Meanwhile, as elections approach in Madhya Pradesh state, Christian leaders allege churches are increasingly targeted as part of an effort by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to consolidate Hindu nationalist votes.

“This year alone, since January we have recorded 35 major incidents of atrocities against the Christian community,” Father Anand Muttungal, spokesman for the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Madhya Pradesh, told Compass. “When we talk of major incidents, we do not count minor incidents like cases of harassment, beatings, attacks on church halls and filing false cases against Christian workers.”

Fr. Anand added that “quite alarming” major incidents of violence have numbered more than 150 since the BJP came to power in the state in 2003.

According to the 2001 census, Madhya Pradesh has a Christian population of 170,381, only 0.3 percent of the total in the state.