Around 30 Christians, including a Catholic priest, face inordinate delay in securing bail and remain detained in various prisons in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh after being arrested this year for conversion activities illegal.
On March 1, Bishop Gerald John Mathias of Lucknow, based in the state capital, asked for prayers for their release, including that of his priest Dominic Pinto, after the priests’ bail application failed. been postponed for the third time in a row.
The delay in hearing the bail application is “sad, unfortunate and disheartening,” the bishop said.
Pinto is among 39 Christians arrested and remanded in custody in the first two months of this year in the northern Indian state, following complaints of violations of the state’s strict anti-conversion law.
Christian leaders in the state said seven of the 39 people arrested had been granted bail, but others remained in jail.
“Let us not lose hope,” Mathias said and asked Christians to “continue to pray until bail is granted.”
Pinto was arrested and sent to prison on February 5.
The priest is among 15 people, including five women, accused of organizing a mass religious conversion in an area under Deva police station in Barabanki district.
They were accused of violating the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021.
The law criminalizes forced religious conversions. It also requires that all religious conversion ceremonies take place with the approval of designated government officials. Violators can be punished with 10 years’ imprisonment and a fine.
A Christian leader, who helps incarcerated people, told UCA News that the bail applications of more than 30 Christians “are pending in different courts.”
The church leader said they were facing delays in listing bail applications for hearing. “We are also faced with a sudden postponement of the hearing without reason,” lamented the Church official.
The hearing on the bail application of Pinto and 10 others was scheduled to take place on March 1, but it was postponed to March 7 because the assigned judge was on leave.
“This is the third time that the hearing on the bail application of Father Pinto and others has been postponed,” said Father Donald D’Souza, chancellor and spokesperson of the Lucknow diocese.
“Twice the court canceled the hearing after the death of two lawyers practicing in the court,” Father D’Souza told UCA News on March 1.
Father Pinto, director of the diocesan pastoral center, was arrested after a Protestant Christian group held a routine prayer service at his pastoral center. The prayer service was intended as a mass conversion activity.
Father D’Souza wanted the government and the judiciary to “take serious note of the inordinate delay” in considering bail applications “as it undermines citizens’ right to free movement.”
Christian leaders say persecution against Christians increased in Uttar Pradesh after 2017, when Yogi Adiynath, a Hindu monk turned politician, became the state’s chief minister after his pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP) won the state elections.
“Even a prayer meeting has become a crime in Uttar Pradesh,” said pastor Dinesh Kumar Maurya, who has faced several cases under the state’s anti-conversion law.
“A few days ago, I was taken to the police station after organizing a birthday party at my house,” Pastor Maurya told UCA News.
United Christian Forum, a New Delhi-based ecumenical group that records persecution against Christians, said that from January to November 2023, the state was responsible for 287 of 687 anti-Christian incidents in India.
Christians make up about 0.18 percent of the Hindu-majority state’s more than 200 million residents.
