Five people, including a pastor, have been jailed for religious con-version in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Police said Pastor Gerald Massey Mathews of the Dasna Church, and the others were arrested for converting people under the pretext of curing their illnesses and offering their children a quality education. Uttar Pradesh is ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party, which enacted a sweep-ing anti-conversion law in 2020.”
The police arrested Pastor Ma-thews and others on Sept. 23 and kept them in custody for more than 24 hours and on Sept. 25 sent them to jail in Dasna without giving any details,” Christian activist Minakshi Singh told on Sept. 25. “The police have kept us in the dark,” said Singh, general secretary of Unity in Compa-ssion, a charity based in Uttar Pradesh. The Christian lay leader said the sweeping anti-conversion law was enacted by the right-wing government without “proper study.” According to news reports, the complaint against the pastor and the others was filed by Naveen Singh, coordinator of the Dharam Jagaran Samanvay Samiti (Forum for Hindu Awakening).