Uttar Pradesh: 9 booked for forced religious conversions in Meerut

Uttar Pradesh Police has lodged an FIR against nine people for allegedly forced conversions to Christianity in Meerut, officials said. The complaint has been registered under the sections of the UP Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act.

As per reports, the accused threatened the said people and instructed them not to take the police into the loop. The FIR stated that the accused had helped the people during the Covid-19 pandemic-induced lockdown and encouraged them to visit the church.

Further investigations are underway.

Earlier in another instance Rajasthan Minister Pratap Khachariyawas said that the government will probe the alleged assault on a Dalit family in a village of Baran district of the state as reports emerged that some people from the community had converted to Buddhism following the incident.

"If any poor, backward or Dalit faces any kind of crime, our responsibility is to raise our voice against that. We'll get the matter investigated," Rajasthan Minister Pratap Khachariyawas said on reports that 250 people of the Dalit community in Baran allegedly converted to Buddhism.

Another Minister Mamata Bhupesh said that FIR has been registered in the matter. "FIR has been registered, have faith on police, Chief Minister monitors everything himself. Probe will be conducted and justice will be delivered. Action to be taken against accused," she said.

A press release by Zila Berwa Mahasabha Yuva Morcha, Rajasthan said that a Dalit family was assaulted for worshipping a Goddess during a religious procession on Friday, following which the Dalit organizations carried out a protest in Bhoolon village, Rajasthan.