India: Christian Couples Sentenced To Two Years Imprisonment For “Alluring” Hindu Relative To Become Christian
by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – A court in India’s Madhya Pradesh state has sentenced a Christian couple to two years imprisonment for allegedly offering a job to a Hindu relative of theirs in exchange for his conversion to Christianity, UCA News reports.
Ramesh Babulal Masih and his wife, Sakhi Ramesh Masih, were charged under the Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act 2021 after a relative of Sakhi’s accused them in 2021 of offering him a job worth 20,000 rupees a month on the condition he convert to Christianity, UCA News reports.
Frequently abused to target non-Hindu minority faith groups, the Freedom of Religion Act is an anti-conversion law that uses vague terminology to criminalize the use of force, coercion or allurement to seek religious conversions.
The Masihs pleaded not guilty to the charge but were convicted by the trial court in Madhya Pradesh’s Sagar district on Mar.11, UCA News said. “The court convicted them merely based on the allegation of an attempt to convert,” Daniel John, a Catholic leader in the state’s capital city of Bhopal, told UCA News on March 15. “It is very easy for anyone to level such complaints,” John said.
In a separate statement to UCA News, Attorney Govind Yadav, who appears before India’s Supreme Court, said: “The terms such as coercion, allurement among others are vague and they need to be explained well to avoid conviction like in the case of this couple. This is a strange situation where a couple is sentenced based on a mere allegation of allurement, a term not well defined in the law.”
The Masihs have the right to appeal their conviction and sentence to a higher court.
With harsh anti-conversion laws in 12 of its 28 states, Hindu-led India ranks 11 on the US Open Doors World Watch List 2024 of the top 50 countries where Christians are persecuted.
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