Image showing a police report. For representational purposes.
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Gujarat: Police have arrested two persons in Gujarat's Surendranagar district for allegedly offering cash and other inducements to locals for conversion to Christianity, an official said on Tuesday.
As per a First Information Report (FIR) registered on Monday, the two accused offered Rs 20,000 and other benefits to some persons (including a complainant) for religious conversion.
They also claimed that conversion to Christianity helped them get over ill-health and financial difficulties, and those who do so would reap similar benefits, the FIR said.
Ratilal Parmar, who hails from Surendranagar, and Bhanvarlal Pardhi, a native of Udaipur in Rajasthan, were arrested on Monday, after they approached the complainant and others and offered them benefits for converting to Christianity in Vadali town of the district, Vadali police station's in-charge inspector D R Padheriya said.
The complainant, Ranjit Bhangu, alleged the two accused also used words against Hindu gods and goddesses, hurting religious sentiments.
Bhangu informed local office-bearers of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal, who reached a market place where the duo was trying to convince people to convert to Christianity.
The VHP and Bajrang Dal volunteers then approached the Vadali police and demanded that an FIR be registered against them.
The two accused have been booked under section 299 (deliberately insulting the religious beliefs of any group of people in India) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Gujarat Freedom of Religion (Amendment) Act, which criminalises forcible or fraudulent religious conversion, including through marriage, with provisions for imprisonment and fines, and placing the burden of proof on the accused, the police said.