BHILAI, India — Two pastors were arrested on charges of “hurting religious feelings” and fraudulent conversion Aug. 26 after Hindu extremists and police disrupted a church’s Sunday worship service following the baptism of five converts in Chhattisgarh state, India. Arun Pannalal, general secretary of the Chhattisgarh Christian Forum, said extremists from the Dharam Sena, or Religion Army, entered the church shouting against Christianity and,
accompanied by police, made allegations of forcible conversion. There were 52 people worshiping at the church in Bhilai, in Durg district. Independent church pastor Charles Patel had baptized five new converts in a nearby river before the service. Police summoned the church members to the Nevai police station, where they interrogated them and the newly baptized converts, “who insisted that they had willingly accepted Jesus as their Savior and that it was a conscious, personal decision to embrace the Christian faith,” Pannalal said.
Two strangers arrived and told police that co-pastors Samson Patel (brother of Charles) and Neeraj Martin had given them money to convert to Christianity. “We have never seen those two men before; they are unknown to anyone,” Charles Patel said. Police inspector Anil Bakshi said that Samson Patel and Martin have been charged with “deliberately injuring religious sentiments” and with violating provisions of the state anti-conversion law.
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