From alleged use of force to induce conversions to canvassing with pamphlets, several cases have popped up across Karnataka.
The man alleging he was being pressured to convert presenting his complaint to police. (Supplied)
At least 10 people have been arrested in three separate cases involving religious conversions in the state since the Karnataka Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Act of 2022 came into effect on 30 September.
Five others have been detained under what is popularly known as the “anti-conversion law” in Hubballi-Dharwad in a new case that surfaced earlier this week.
While in some cases the cops themselves are not sure about registering cases or if the incidents/instances happened before the law came into effect, a senior police who wished to remain anonymous told South First: “We will do our duty and it is up to the court to decide whether the incident should come under the ambit of the new anti-conversion law.”
The Hubballi-Dharwad city police detained five people — including a few pastors — for allegedly engaging in religious conversion from Hinduism to Christianity in the Shivashankara colony within the Old Hubballi police station limits.
One Sampath — an individual in his early 40s who has been married for about 13 years — filed a petition with the police that he required police protection from his wife and her family members, who he claimed were forcing him to convert to Christianity.
Both Sampath and his wife belong to the Shikkaligar community, which is said to be minuscule in population and economically very weak, the police said.
According to the cops, it all started with a longstanding quarrel between Sampath and his wife.
When Sampath could not take his wife’s and in-laws’ pressure to convert to Christianity, he approached the community seniors, who got in touch with a Hindu activist, who in turn asked him to file a petition with the police, since the people involved were his own family.
Sampath drafted a petition with a list of 15 names of people allegedly involved in forcing him to convert. The list included his in-laws and others, some of whom were already converted.
Tension prevailed in front of the Old Hubballi police station when Sampath was handing over the petition to the police. A leader from a pro-Hindu organisation accompanied Sampath, along with others, to support him and facilitate police action.
Sampath told the police that pastors came to his in-laws’ house and asked him to attend the prayers. He also alleged that these pastors have been targeting his community (Shikkaligar) and converting them to Christianity.
Other members of the community claimed that the pastors were also taking the help of a local rowdy element to force people into converting to Christianity.
However, a senior police officer from the Old Hubballi police station told South First that no rowdy element was involved in the case.
Though the police did not file an FIR until Thursday, 16 November, they are in receipt of Sampath’s petition and have asked five people among the 15 to appear in front of the Assistant Commissioner of Police (South) RK Patil for questioning.
“We will inquire into the entire matter and then decide — based on what we uncover — whether this deems fit for a case under the new law,” Patil told the South First.
“Since it involves a family and its extended members, we have to deal with the matter in a sensitive manner,” he added.
After the Karnataka Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Act, 2022 came into effect on 30 September, a Muslim man named Syed Mueen — a 24-year-old resident of BK Nagar in Bengaluru, who runs a chicken shop in Yeshwanthpura in the city — was the first person to be slapped with a case under the new law.
He was arrested on 8 October because of his marriage to a 19-year-old Hindu girl, who accompanied him to the Penukonda district of Andhra Pradesh and converted to Islam there.
After they got married, they returned to Bengaluru the following week.
The Karnataka police booked him under the “precondition before a wedding” section under the new act.
When questions were raised on the conversion ceremony that happened in another state — one where there was no such law — Deputy Commissioner of Police (North) Vinayak Patil had told South First: “Since there was a missing person’s case registered on 5 October and the continuation of that case would lead to the religious conversion that happened at another state, and since the blood relative — the mother of the victim — came forward with a complaint that her daughter was forced into another religion on the pretext of marriage, the case was registered and the investigation was undertaken.”
In another case., this time in Mandya district on 10 November, five people were arrested and slapped with cases both under IPC sections and sections of the new anti-conversion law.
The arrested are Kumarnagesh (26), a resident of Malavalli in Mandya; Sumanth (28), a resident of NR Mohalla, Mandya; Vijaygowda EN (23), a resident of Malavalli in Mandya; Sandeep SV (23), a resident of Gundulpet in Chamrajnagara; and Hemanthkumar KR (25), a resident of Malavalli, Mandya.
All of them would travel and identify poor and vulnerable people who could be lured into converting to Christianity, a senior police officer said.
Complainant Abhishek Gowda DR (31), a resident of Maddur in Mandya, was travelling on his bike on Annur Road near a church on 10 November when the five men reportedly requested him to stop and introduced themselves.
They had different kinds of pamphlets with them and were distributing them to people on the road, said the complaint. They apparently told Gowda that he should consider attending prayers in the church, which could change his life forever.
The men reportedly told him there was no use praying to any Hindu god, and that Jesus was the true saviour. They told him that if he or someone he knew of was not getting married or suffering from any problems, the church had solutions, and anyone with health ailments could avail treatment at Christian hospitals for free.
The men also reportedly told Gowda that the church offered solutions for addictions.
Gowda took objection and began arguing with the men, saying they could not impose any other religion on him. He then called a few friends who arrived at the spot and questioned the five men, and found that the pamphlets they had apparently indicated they were for religious conversions. The police were informed.
“When our men were convinced that the pamphlets indicated that they were meant for religious conversions and the canvassing that had happened on the complainant was confirmed, we registered an FIR and booked the accused under IPC sections 153-A (promoting enmity between two groups), 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs), 149 (unlawful assembly) along with Sections under 5 and 7 that prohibits forced religious conversion through misrepresentation, coercion, allurement, fraud, or promise of marriage in the Karnataka Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Act, 2022,” said a senior police officer from KM Doddi police station.
Mandya Superintendent of Police N Yathish told the South First: “The five men have been arrested, produced before a magistrate and remanded in judicial custody.”
The Banashankari police, in the first week of October, arrested five people, including a former BBMP corporator, in a case related to forcible conversion.
The accused are former Banashankari ward councillor Ansar Pasha, local mosque head Nayaz Pasha, Haaji Saheb, Ataur Rehman and Shoaib.
According to the police, one Sridhar, a resident of Mandya, was interested in converting to Islam. Sridhar had also got his circumcision ritual performed, after which he did not want to proceed further, and pleaded with the accused.
However, the accused forcibly got him converted to Islam, the police said.
A case was registered in this regard at the Navnagar police station in Hubballi and then transferred to Banashankari as the alleged incident happened in the city, the police added.
Sridhar, who had family problems, got in touch with the accused, who offered to help him financially with ₹50,000, but in turn he had to come to Bengaluru and preach and practise Islam.
The accused transferred the amount to Sridhar and started forcing him to come to Bengaluru.
The police said that the accused even threatened Sridhar with a revolver when he refused to convert.
He was also force-fed beef, Sridhar stated in his complaint to the police. Sridhar was also sent to learn Quran at various places across the city, the police added.
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