Church people, including a bishop, yesterday sought anticipatory bail after police booked them for violating a central Indian state’s law on religious conversion.

Bishop Mathew Vaniakizhakkel of Satna, a diocese in Madhya Pradesh state, has dismissed the case against him, two priests, a nun and two laypeople as “totally fabricated.”

The bishop told UCA News today that the case is “part of a motivated campaign against the Church for its role in helping the weaker sections of society.”

Police registered the case under non-bailable sections of the state’s stringent anti-conversion law after one Christopher Pavy, a Christian, complained that a woman converted to Catholicism before her marriage in May 2009.

Pavy also sought action against the bishop and others under the state law that forbids conversion through force or allurement.

However, the woman’s brother, Nand Kishore, says the charge is false as “ours is a strong Catholic family.” Kishore, who is a lawyer, told UCA News his family attends Church services regularly. “My sister’s marriage was done according to our Christian tradition,” he added.

The bishop said the Church baptizes only the children of Catholics, “hence, the question of conversion does not arise at all.”

Father Jolly Konnukodan, assistant parish priest of Satna’s St. Vincent Cathedral, told UCA News that the Church applied for anticipatory bail since it took the case seriously.

The priest said the police had already investigated the case after they received a similar complaint soon after the woman’s marriage.

This was corroborated by police officer Shashank Garg, who probed the case earlier. “There was no merit in the case,” he told UCA News.

Father Konnudkodan regretted that “vested interests use the case to harass us regularly.”

On March 11, two days after Pavy filed the case, some Hindu radicals tried to vandalize the cathedral but police foiled that attempt.

Sacred Heart Sister Pauly, who is among the accused, expressed shock over the case. “I am engaged in educating children and not in any conversion activities as alleged,” the principal of Christ Jyoti Senior Secondary School told UCA News.

Source: Christians seek bail in conversion case (UCAN)

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