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Religious Conversion Case: Allahabad High Court Reserves Verdict In Anticipatory Bail Plea Filed By 'SHUATS' Vice Chancellor
Sparsh Upadhyay
18 Feb 2023 7:07 PM IST
The Allahabad High Court on Friday reserves its Judgment in the anticipatory bail plea filed by Vice Chancellor of Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences (formerly Allahabad Agricultural Institute) (Dr.) Rajendra Bihari Lal in connection with a mass religious conversion case.Granting him protection against coercive action till the delivery of the Judgment, the...
The Allahabad High Court on Friday reserves its Judgment in the anticipatory bail plea filed by Vice Chancellor of Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences (formerly Allahabad Agricultural Institute) (Dr.) Rajendra Bihari Lal in connection with a mass religious conversion case.
Granting him protection against coercive action till the delivery of the Judgment, the bench of Justice Manju Rani Chauhan reserved its verdict in the matter.
The FIR, in this case, was lodged last year in April on the complaint filed by one Himanshu Dixit with the allegations that about 90 persons of Hindu religion have been congregated at Evangelical Church of India, Hariharganj, Fatehpur for the purpose of their conversion to Christianity by putting them under undue influence, coercion and luring them by playing fraud and promise of easy money, etc.
On receiving this information, the Government officers reached the place and interrogated the pastor Vijay Massiah, who allegedly disclosed that the process for conversion was going on for the last 34 days and that this process shall be completed within 40 days.
He also allegedly told that they have been trying to convert even patients admitted to the Mission Hospital and the employees play an active role in the same. Pursuant to this, the Government officers found 35 persons (named in the F.I.R.) and 20 unknown persons as having been involved in this conversion of 90 persons of the Hindu community to Christianity.
The FIR was registered under Sections 153A, 506, 420, 467, 468 I.P.C. and Sections- 3/5(1) of Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act
(Dr.) Rajendra Bihari Lal was not named in the FIR, however, he was implicated at a subsequent stage on the basis of statements given by two interested witnesses and Investigating Officer of the case as being biased against the applicant.
Seeking anticipatory bail in the case, he moved to the High Court, wherein the Senior Counsel appearing for him submitted that he is innocent and has no criminal antecedent to his credit. He next submitted that the informant holds a position in an organization - Vishva Hindu Parishad and some co-accused persons have already been released on bail.
Significantly, a division bench of the High Court on Friday itself observed that Dixit (first informant/an office bearer of the Vishva Hindu Parishad, Fatehpur) was not a competent person to lodge a First Information Report (FIR) pertaining to the Fatehpur Mass Religious Conversion Case as he doesn't fall into the category of aggrieved person (as per Section 4 of the UP Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act).
Read more about the Court's observations here: VHP Office Bearer Wasn't A Competent Person To Lodge FIR In 'Fatehpur Mass Religious Conversion' Case: Allahabad High Court
Appearances
Counsel for Applicant: Senior Advocate G.S. Chaturvedi, Advocate Kumar Vikrant,Sr. Advocate
Counsel for Opposite Party: Manish Goel Senior Advocate/Additional Advocate General assisted by AGASs A.K. Sand and Amit Singh Chauhan
Case title - Prof. (Dr.) Rajendra Bihari Lal vs. State of U.P. and Another [CRIMINAL MISC ANTICIPATORY BAIL APPLICATION U/S 438 CR.P.C. No. - 1348 of 2023]
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