Uttar Pradesh: Out for feast, six ‘preachers’ in Kasganj jailed

AGRA: Six men got together to meet their friend at Gangpur village in Kasganj — all of them Dalits who had converted to Christianity. A day later, on Monday, all of them were jailed for "rioting and hurting religious sentiments" after a saffron outfit complained its members were attacked by them when they tried to stop “conversions” in the village. Police later found no evidence that they were preachers.
Shrinivas, Kuldeep, Rahul Kumar, Shiv Kumar, Durgesh and Kishan were visiting Rampal — all between 30 and 50 years old and from Kasganj district — on Sunday afternoon.
“I got information that a few people were trying to convert Hindu families to Christianity in Gangpur village,” a complaint by Hindu Jagran Manch member Arvind Kumar Gupta, on the basis of which the FIR was filed, said. “When I reached there, I found seven men distributing money and religious literature among villagers.”
Gupta wanted them to be charged under the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Ordinance, 2020, which bans “forced” conversions. But police dismissed the conversion theory. “They were not preaching. They were just having food at a friend’s house,” a policeman said on condition of anonymity. Kasganj DSP Deep Kumar Pant, too, said, “For now, there is no evidence to suggest that the group of men was involved in religious conversion.”
The six men were, however, booked for other charges listed in Gupta’s complaint — rioting, assault, intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace, criminal intimidation, mischief and deliberate and malicious act to outrage religious feelings — at the Sikandarpur Vaish police station in Kasganj. The reason for the last, police said, was that “abusive” content about Hindu deities was found on one page in a diary found inside the van the six men had come to Gangpur in. SHO Jitendra Kumar said, “They were not able to provide any explanation about the content.”
DSP Pant said, “Six of them were arrested and sent to jail. One of the accused (Kishan) is absconding.”