Omar Rashid 
This is the seventh article in a series of reports on people who won their legal battles after being falsely charged under the anti-conversion laws brought in by BJP governments in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand. Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6
New Delhi: Little did the two lovers know that on the day they planned to marry, they would be end up behind bars. Pawan* (34) and Chanda* (27) believed, perhaps naively, that only mischief-mongers go to jail. “I was quite saddened. I always thought jail was for those who do bad things and commit crime. But we didn’t commit any crime,” Pawan said.
Residents of Simdega in Jharkhand, located near the border with Odisha, Pawan, Chanda, Chanda’s sister-in-law Rajni and local pastor Jagan, who was to officiate their wedding, were booked under the state’s anti-conversion law in the summer of 2018. They spent 42 days in jail before being released on bail.
The complainant in the case was Chanda’s father, Hemant, who was disgruntled with the idea that Chanda and Pawan planned to marry according to Christian customs. Both Chanda and Pawan belong to the Santhal tribe, which follow the animistic Sarna religion. Hemant, a follower of Sarna, wanted his daughter to marry according to Sarna rituals. Although he objected to their wedding, he did not intend to punish his daughter for it, not through the anti-conversion law. Hemant, who is illiterate and often intoxicated, was manipulated into lodging a police complaint against his own daughter and would-be son-in-law by village council members linked to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. He later realised his folly and tried to address his guilt by changing his statement in court. But the process took six long years before Pawan, Chanda, Rajni and pastor Jagan were acquitted of the charges.
Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty.
It all started in May 2018, when Pawan and Chanda decided to get married after a period of courtship. Since they both had given up their Sarna identities and followed the path of Jesus Christ, they decided to marry as per Christian traditions. The news of their scheduled wedding, fixed on May 30, 2018, caused a sensation in their village, mostly inhabited by Sarna followers of the Santhal tribe. The villagers held two public meetings, where Pawan and Chanda’s plans were scrutinised. They were bent on preventing a Christian wedding in their village. “They heard that our wedding was fixed but were unhappy that we had not informed them how we would be getting married. What rituals we would follow. When we informed them we would marry as per the Christian way, they objected to it and threatened us, asking us to marry as per the Sarna tradition,” said Chanda.
A First Information Report was lodged at the Bolba police station against Pawan, Chanda, Rajni and Jagan, accusing them of assaulting Chanda’s father Hemant and trying to force him to convert to Christianity. It would be later revealed that Narendra Manjhi, the president of the village’s Sarna religious council, drafted the police complaint. Hemant, allegedly unaware of its content, signed it. “They drafted a statement and made him sign it,” said Chanda, adding that Hemant did not know he was the sole informant in the case.
In the FIR, Hemant alleged that on May 27, 2018 around 10 am, Pawan and pastor Jagan came to his house and started applying pressure on him to get the marriage solemnized through Christian rituals. They also asked him to convert him to Christianity, he alleged. When he rejected their demands, they assaulted him with a lathi, and kicked and punched him, he alleged. Hearing the commotion, villagers, including the BJP-backed village mukhiya (headman), gathered at the scene and intervened.
The four were booked under Section 4 of the Jharkhand Freedom of Religion Act, 2017. They were also slapped with charges for intentionally causing hurt and wrongful restraint.
Pawan and Chanda, however, said that the entire incident was fabricated. “There was no such incident of assault at all,” he said, also rejecting the allegation that they were trying to convert Hemant to Christianity. Chanda said her father adhered to the Sarna faith and wanted them to marry as per its traditions. “He also followed the Hindu religion and never accepted the Christian faith like we did,” said Chanda.
Two social meetings were convened in the village, on May 27 and 28, 2018, and objections were raised to the planned Christian wedding on May 30. Through his sources, Pawan came to know that the villagers planned to lodge a criminal case against him. To pre-empt this, he took Chanda, her sister-in-law Rajni and pastor Rajan and went to the police station to inform them about the opposition to their marriage. Pawan carried an application stating that Chanda and he were marrying each other willingly, as consenting adults. But the members of the village Sarna council and several members of the ruling BJP, including a representative of an MP, were already there, said Pawan. “They threatened us. They had already got a case registered against us. Our point of view was not heard. The police didn’t accept my application. They tore it,” said Pawan.
Chanda said they informed the police that the villagers were threatening them. But instead of listening to their grievances, the police took them into custody. “They didn’t listen to us at all. We were being lectured that we should be marrying according to our Sarna rituals and tradition. And on May 30, the day we were supposed to get married, we were sent to jail,” said Chanda.
The matter went to trial. The prosecution presented 11 witnesses against the accused, including Chanda’s cousin Babulal, her brother-in-law Birbaha, her brother Shiva and the village headman Jogendra Manjhi. Some of the witnesses told the court that the decision to get an FIR lodged was taken after a village meeting conducted under chairperson Narendra Manjhi. Those who testified against the accused were inconsistent in their narration of the story; some claimed that Hemant was beaten up outdoors in a field near his house while others said he was assaulted in one of his rooms.
After being released from jail on bail on July 11, 2018, Pawan and Chanda got married in a civil court. While the couple battled it out in court, outside it they tried to convince Chanda’s father to withdraw the allegations. Initially, Hemant did not listen to them. Pawan and Chandai said Hemant, a drunkard, was under the influence of the village headman and the co-believers of his Sarna faith. But with time and through persuasion, Hemant had a change of heart. He was ridden with guilt and submitted an application in court, seeking a compromise in the case. A joint compromise petition was filed by both sides informing the court that they had amicably resolved their dispute. “When they stopped feeding him and offering him drinks, he realised he had made a mistake and was being manipulated. We told him it was of no use repenting here, ‘You must say all this in court’,” said Pawan.
Hemant informed the court that the police complaint only carried his signature. It was drafted by Narendra Manjhi. Hemant said that the villagers and people from his community had put pressure on him to lodge the police complaint.
Chanda (L) and Pawan. Photos: Special arrangement
Since the charges of wrongful restraint and intentionally causing hurt could be compoundable through Section 320 of the CrPC, sub-divisional judicial magistrate Simdega, Sumi Bina Horo, looked into the merits of the allegations. The court did not find any evidence to substantiate the claims in the FIR. There were contradictions in the statements of witnesses about the place of offence, whether indoors or outdoors; no witness spoke about wrongful restraint; there was no injury report supported to prove grievous hurt and the investigating officer said he did not seize any material nor any blood stained cloth allegedly belonging to Hemant.
“The witnesses have not stated anything about use of any weapon during [the] quarrel between them and also there are no evidences available on record. Neither of them have also seen or heard anything about the pressurizing or adoption of christian religion (sic),” sub-divisional judicial magistrate Horo recorded in her order on May 20, 2024. Horo said it was evident that the victim, Hemant, had lodged the case on the “pressure of his community”. The prosecution has “miserably failed to prove the ingredients of the” offences, said Horo, acquitting Pawan, Chanda, Rajni and Rajan.
But like in many cases of unlawful conversion, their woes did not end with a victory in court. For their defiance, Pawan and Chanda were forced to relocate to a new place due to societal pressure. They were not allowed to live in either of their villages. “Due to the pressure of society and their religion, we moved to a different village. When we got married, they told my father that if he let us stay in the village, they would expel him as well. We thought it was best to leave,” said Pawan. His father died in 2023.
Pawan now lives in a rented place in Simdega, doing odd jobs. His landlord often faces threats to evict him. Chanda moved to Delhi last year after the court’s acquittal and works as a cook in a household. They hope to save enough money to build a small house for themselves somewhere in Simdega.
*Names have been changed to protect their anonymity.