A court in Bareilly has come down hard on the police in a case where the possession of a Bible was allegedly taken as the basis for forced religious conversion. The court also took note of the fact that the accused suffered loss of prestige and his job due to the trumped up charges.
As per the initial police report, filed by one Himanshu Patel, on May 29, 2022, some members of a Hindu organisation received information that Abhishek Gupta, with eight others, was pressurising 32 people for conversion in a closed room. The only incriminating piece of evidence, as per the police, was a Bible found with Gupta. The incident allegedly took place in the Bichpuri village of Bareilly.
Patel alleged that Gupta was praying to Christ and that he stopped only when the police intervened. One Kundan Lal was also named as an accused in the report.
In his response, Gupta claimed that the charges against him were filed only for gaining popularity. The police investigation did not have full names and addresses of anyone who was allegedly subjected to conversion; nor did the report detail any rituals/prayers which were being undertaken to conduct the supposed conversion.
The ‘recovery’ of the Bible was itself questioned by the court as the initial police investigators denied any such discovery had been made. The number of Bibles recovered were also different as per different witnesses. Moreover, witnesses also deposed that they had no idea whether there was any ‘book’ with Gupta and that if there was they did not know what the contents of the book were.
In its judgement, the district court has noted that the incident is worrisome, for the police can show the recovery of anything from anyone and form a case on its basis. It also noted that the second accused, Lal, was not even present when the alleged conversion was happening. The case, the court observed, had been filed only to gain publicity by a member of an organisation that was not even registered. The police has been directed to take action against those who filed the report and police personnel who ‘investigated’ the matter to conclude that conversion was being attempted.
