Kerala pastor among 8 held in Maharashtra over religious conversion bid; CM Vijayan slams move

Amravati: Police in Maharashtra's Amravati district on Wednesday arrested a pastor hailing from Kerala, and seven others including four women, on the charge of hurting religious sentiments after a man accused them of offering money to people for conversion to Christianity, officials said.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan termed the arrest of the "Malayali Christian priest, his family and aides" as "deeply disturbing", and criticised the Sangh Parivar for the "worrying pattern of targeting minorities to fuel polarisation".

A complaint over the incident was lodged by Lakshman Shede, a resident of Warud, around 80 km from Amravati, on Tuesday.

As per the complaint, five to six persons came to the house of Ritesh Bondre, a local resident, and erected a pandal in front of his house on December 30.

A person wearing white clothes was preaching about Christianity to people of the village and was luring the attendees with money to change their faith, it said.

Based on his complaint, in-charge of the Benoda police station visited the spot and brought the eight accused to the police station for inquiry.

The eight persons are identified as Bondre, the local resident; Anandkumar Karri, a resident of Nagpur; Sudhir William, a native of Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala, who has been residing in Nagpur for the last few years; Vikram Sande from Nagpur and four women, the police said.

Police sources said Kerala native William is a pastor.

On Wednesday, the police formally placed the eight accused under arrest and produced them before a local court, which granted them bail.

They were booked under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) section 299 (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings) and 302 (uttering words with deliberate intent to wound religious feelings of any person).

Kerala CM Vijayan, in a post on X, said, "Deeply disturbing that a Malayali Christian priest, his family and aides were arrested in Nagpur on allegations of forced conversion. This follows a worrying pattern followed by Sangh Parivar, of targeting minorities to fuel polarisation, as seen earlier in Jabalpur. Such actions undermine constitutional freedoms."