Police in India left two young children of a pastor and his wife unattended when they arrested the couple on fabricated charges, and other officers later beat the children’s mother in custody, sources said.
The couple was released on bail last month after being arrested on July 27 along with three other Christians under charges of alleged “forced conversion” in Uttar Pradesh state.
“We were framed under a completely fabricated case,” 34-year-old Pastor Vinod Pal Singh, released along with his wife on Aug. 21, told Morning Star News.
The five Christians and two others were accused of trying to coerce and pressure a 23-year-old man identified only as Abhishek to convert to Christianity, according to a First Information Report (FIR) filed on July 27 at Imaliya Sultanpur police station in Sitapur District based on his complaint.
Police arrested Pastor Singh, his wife Jyoti Devi, Anantram Maurya and his two sons Ramit and Shubhkaran. Sanjay Maurya and Patiram (identified only by his first name) had already left the church site by then, avoiding arrest.
Pastor Singh’s two sons, ages 4 and 7, who were in the church building when police arrived, were left behind after officers arrested their parents from the premises.
“We later learned in jail that the 4-year-old cried for his mother for several days after we were taken,” Pastor Singh said.
Church members arranged for the children’s maternal grandparents to care for them.
After a lower court denied bail, a district court granted bail to the Christians on Aug. 11. While the Maurya family was released from jail on Aug. 14, Pastor Singh and his wife faced extensive documentation delays and were not released until Aug. 21.
“Pastor Vinod Pal is from Lakhimpur Kheri, which is a separate district from Sitapur, so securing a bond was very challenging,” Suresh Kumar, a friend who assisted with the bail process, told Morning Star News. “Government holidays, finding a guarantor, and document verification took a lot of time, causing the delay.”
Fabricated Case
Pastor Singh leads the Vishwa Vani (literally translated “Voice to the Universe”) Church in Sitapur, part of a denomination and indigenous church planting movement established in 1980.
The Sitapur church has operated for 15 years but has never encountered such serious opposition.
While Pastor Singh was leading Sunday worship on July 27, about 25 men belonging to the Hindu extremist Vishwa Hindu Parishad stormed into the prayer hall around 12:30 p.m., where about 80 congregation members were in attendance.
The intruders recorded videos of the service and then ordered all congregation members to leave. They then began interrogating Pastor Singh, his wife and the three members of the Maurya family – owners of the property on which the church facility is built.
They asked Pastor Singh if he was carrying out forced conversions there.
“‘Where do you get the money from for such work?’ they asked, hitting me,” he said.
For about two hours they interrogated him and overturned everything inside the hall, he said.
“They overturned the pulpit, broke the keyboard and chairs and destroyed everything they could find,” Pastor Singh said, adding that they manhandled him and his wife. “They recorded videos of the vandalized church, collected all the Bibles and literature, bundled them together and sent them to the police station.”
The Hindu extremist intruders then invited media inside, who took pictures and made videos published by their respective outlets, reporting a completely different narrative.
“Nobody interviewed us or cross-checked the false story presented to them by the Hindu extremists,” Pastor Singh said.
Imaliya police later arrived, and the Hindu extremists told officers to arrest the couple and others, using the confiscated Bibles as evidence of “forced conversion.”
Police arrested the five Christians and confiscated Pastor Singh’s motorbike. Only after Pastor Singh and the others appeared before the magistrate did he discover the complainant was one Abhishek whom he had never met or heard of.
“It is a completely fabricated story presented by the Hindu extremists,” Pastor Singh said. “I have never met Abhishek or known any such person. The whole story about me trying to entice Abhishek and pressure him to convert to Christianity is fabricated.”
In his complaint, Abhishek reported that he was passing through the village when someone told him that some people were treating the sick, so he went to see them. Abhishek claimed that Anantram Maurya and his sons approached him and, pointing to Pastor Singh and his wife on a stage, told him they could give him a lot of money and would arrange his marriage to a nice girl, but only if he would convert to Christianity.
Abhishek stated in his complaint that he met Pastor Singh and his wife, and they showed him their Bibles and “took some water in a bottle, spoke some spells over it, and gave that water to me to drink, saying that now you can convert and become a Christian. We will give you a place to stay, arrange your marriage to a good girl, and give you lakhs [hundreds of thousands] of rupees.”
According to the complaint, Sanjay Maurya and Patiram then joined them and began pressuring Abhishek to convert to Christianity. Abhishek left the hall and called the VHP and Bajrang Dal members, narrating the entire incident to them, who in turn informed the police.
“Police arrived there and confiscated three Bibles, bottles containing healing water and oil, boxes of sweets, a dholak [hand drum], khanjari [tambourine], and several other items allegedly used for conversion purposes,” Abhishek’s report alleged.
“Is it a crime to have musical instruments inside a church?” a Christian rights advocate who requested anonymity told Morning Star News. “Is it a crime to have your own religious books – like a Bible – inside a church? How can these be confiscated and presented as ‘items used for conversion’?”
A Quran will commonly be found in a mosque just as a Bible will commonly be found at a church site, the advocate said.
“How can police become hand-in-glove with Hindu extremists and not use common sense before registering such complaints?” he said. “When police detained Singh and the others, there was no Abhishek present, yet the police let the Hindu extremists fabricate this story.”
Beaten in Jail
Police held Pastor Singh and the others for three days before transferring them to Sitapur jail.
“My wife was assaulted inside the police station during interrogation by female police personnel,” the pastor said. “They asked her how many associates we have, where we get our support from and how much, and how many pastors are in that area.”
Jyoti sustained internal injuries from the beating and “still has severe pain in her legs,” Pastor Singh said.
He and his wife faced discrimination in their respective wards, he said.
“Guards initially treated us badly,” he said. “It seems they had received instructions from higher officials that we were arrested in a forced conversion case, and that back-breaking work should be assigned to us.”
After three to four days, however, their attitude toward Pastor Singh and the others changed.
“Initially my wife was very discouraged, especially recalling the trauma the children would be experiencing,” he said. “But then the Lord comforted and strengthened her and gave her courage. She continued to cling to the Lord and shared God’s love with her fellow inmates.”
Pastor Singh was permitted to meet his wife every Sunday for 30 minutes. They encouraged each other to persevere and trust in the Lord.
“Every night I prayed secretly. While most of the inmates were cordial, some hurled curses at me, accusing me of doing the same things inside the jail that I was arrested for,” he said.
Police released him and his wife from jail around 9 p.m. on Aug. 21, but his motorbike remains in police custody. Singh must pay 18,000 rupees ($204 USD) to secure its release. Police have visited Singh’s house three times since his release from jail.
“They are inquiring about who I am, what I do, and all my whereabouts,” he said.
A former Hindu, Pastor Singh had accepted Christ in 2011, and since 2016 has served as a pastor.
“I have been confronted many times in the past, but after peaceful discussions the matter would subside,” he said. “This is the first time that I was arrested based on the false testimony of someone I do not know.”
Pastor Singh’s faith remains steadfast at a point when many begin to question God.
“Jesus has asked us to be ready for such situations, and I really think we should be prepared,” he said. “I truly believe that the authorities are appointed by the Lord, and He is allowing this in our lives for His glory. A time will come when the judge will dismiss all the false allegations against us. He is Jehovah-Jireh [The Lord will provide] – He will provide for all our needs.”
Christian support organization Open Doors ranks India 11th on its 2025 World Watch List of countries where Christians face the most severe persecution. India stood at 31st place in 2013 but has steadily fallen in the rankings since Narendra Modi came to power as prime minister.
Religious rights advocates blame the increasingly hostile rhetoric of the National Democratic Alliance government, led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, which they say has emboldened Hindu extremists in India since Modi took power in May 2014.
