Uttar Pradesh: Now Christians feel the heat

As part of the initial inquiry based on the VHP’s allegations of conversion, the police asked everyone in the church to produce their Aadhaar cards.

It was A who had called the police. Meanwhile, at the scene, based on a complaint by a VHP member, the UP police booked 55 people present inside the church in a first information report (FIR) at Fatehpur’s Kotwali police station. No police action was taken against the VHP.

In this concluding part of our three-part series* on the misuse of the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act 2021, we explain how the Fatehpur church case has led to cases against 201 Christians in four FIRs filed over nine months—making this one of UP’s largest anti-conversion cases.

In Part 1, our investigation of 101 FIRs registered in anti-conversion allegations revealed that most complaints were filed by third parties with no legal standing, even under the state’s anti-conversion law, itself criticised for being unconstitutional.

In Part 2, our analyses of 37 bail orders by district courts in UP revealed a pattern of questionable investigation, with FIRs based on complaints by third parties, not victims but Hindu extremists.

UP’s anti-conversion law and similar ones in at least 12 states have been frequently criticised. The law has provisions that violate the Constitution, upends the burden of proof and contradicts established laws that the Supreme Court has often restated, as Article 14 reported on 14 February 2024.