Persecutions in India: Christian Businessman Charged by Court

A Christian business man has been accused of attempted conversion by an Indian court in Kayamkulam Taluka, in Kerala's Alappuzha district.

"Mr. Vidya Sagaran was arrested by local police on March 30," said defence attorney Ranjit George. "The Judicial First Class Magistrate of Kayamkulam granted him bail on the 31st."

Vishwanathan Pillai accused Sagaran of persuading him to convert from Nayar caste (Hindu sect) to the Pentecostal faith.

India does not have an anti-conversion law, and so in such a case section 153A of the Penal Code an be used to charge those accused of "forced" or "fraudulent" conversions.

Section 153A states: "Whoever by words, either spoken or written, or by signs or by visible representations or otherwise, promotes or attempts to promote, on grounds of religion, disharmony or feelings of enmity, hatred or ill-will between different religious groups, shall be punished with imprisonment which may extend to three years, or with fine, or both."

Pillai claims that Sagaran lent him money as encouragement to convert. As Pillai says, later Sagaran insisted on returning the money since Pillai did not convert.

The defence attorney explained: "Sagaran was the mediator for the money transfer between his neighbour Pillai and third person. After he asked for money to be returned, Pillai accused him falsely."

He has also suspicion that Pillai was led on by some Hindu activist to make the complaint and believes the case will not get even to the stage of collecting evidence since there is no foundation to the case.

The region where the incident has happened is an area with a majority population of Hindus, with only 3 small churches - including the Emmanuel mission church, the one attended by Sagaran. Objections of Hindu activists to the work of Christian relief groups in the tsunami torn areas have also had their influence on this small church.

Emmanuel mission is engaged in providing assistence and aid to those affected and who face the prospect of going to an orphanage. "However, the local Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a radical Hindu group and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council) are trying to discredit the rigorous work carried out by Christian organisations," says Sajan K. George, national convenor of the Global Council of Indian Christians.

Activists have refused the works of Christian belief groups and have allegedly misused the situation to accuse Christian volunteers of forced convertions.