Omar Rashid 
This is the fifth 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
New Delhi: Shakti Singh* remembers a police officer scolding his subordinates for hauling him into the lock up on the eve of Independence Day. “‘Why have you brought him in today,’ the police officer asked them at the police station on August 14,” says Singh, a resident of Madhya Pradesh.
A farmer from the Bhil tribe, 33-year-old Singh would go on to spend six days behind bars – from August 14 to 19, 2019 – on unlawful religious conversion charges. Even after being released on bail, he spent almost five years with the sword of the state’s contentious anti-conversion law dangling over his head, before a court in April 2024 acquitted him of all charges.
During the course of the trial, the case against him turned on its head after the prosecution witnesses, Singh’s aunt and cousin, contradicted the police version of the story. It turned out, as Singh claimed while speaking to The Wire, that they had been coerced to lodge a complaint against him by members of a right-wing group.
A First Information Report was lodged against him at the Kukshi police station in Dhar district on the eastern fringes of Madhya Pradesh on August 14, 2019. Singh was accused of luring and coercing his cousin Yuvraj Vaskel* and his family to convert to Christianity. On the said day, Singh says he had gone to his maternal aunt Kalibai’s house in Lohari village, 25 km from his village in Manawar tehsil, to participate in an aradhna (prayer) for Jesus Christ. Such prayer or healing sessions are a common practice in the hinterland states among those who believe in Christ, even if they may or may not be Christian on paper.
The FIR against him alleged that at around 11:30 am, he offered Vaskel and his family money as allurement and tried to pressure them to consider Jesus as their lord. The complaint says that Singh allegedly told them that their Hindu deities and goddesses, including Ram and Hanuman, were not their bhagwan (gods). Singh was also accused of burning a copy of the Hanuman Chalisa, a popular prayer recited by followers of Hindu deity Hanuman, kept at Vaskel’s house. The FIR further alleged that Singh removed all the idols and images of Hindu deities and goddesses kept in Vaskel’s house and stamped on them. Singh also allegedly insulted the Hindu faith by abusing Ram and threatened to kill Vaskel and his family when they refused to accept Christianity as their faith.
A complaint signed ‘under coercion’
Singh said none of this happened. In fact, he said that his cousin Vaskel did not even lodge a police complaint against him. He alleged that activists linked to a Hindutva group got to know about his regular visits from Manawar to his cousin’s house for prayers and barged into the house. Singh named a well-known outfit but since The Wire cannot confirm its complicity, we are choosing not to name it.
He claims that when the Hindutva activists got to know he was in Vaskel’s house conducting prayers, they forced the family to lodge a complaint against Singh or face consequences. Madhya Pradesh was then, as it is now, ruled by a Bharatiya Janata Party government.
Singh alleged that the Hindutva activists coerced his cousin to lodge an FIR against him. “They had come to know of the prayer. They threatened him that if he did not file a case with the police, they would get his house demolished with a bulldozer,” said Singh. Though unwilling, Vaskel signed the complaint against his cousin.
Singh was booked under Sections 3 and 4 of the Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act, 1968, the anti-conversion law that existed in the state before it was replaced by a more stringent version in 2020. The FIR against him also charged him for criminal intimidation with more severe threats and promotion of enmity among different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc. These offences are covered by Sections 153A and 506 (2) of the Indian Penal Code.
Section 3 of the MP Act of 1968 says that no person shall convert or attempt to convert, either directly or otherwise, any person from one religious faith to another by the use of force or by allurement or by any fraudulent means nor shall any person abet any such conversion.
Section 4 of the law says that any person contravening the provision contained in Section 3 shall, without prejudice to any civil liability be punishable with imprisonment which may extend to one year or with fine which may extend to Rs 5000 or with both. In case the offence is committed against a minor, a woman or a person belonging to the Schedules Castes or Scheduled Tribes, the punishment is higher, imprisonment up to two years.
How the case fell apart
The chargesheet against Singh was filed in September 2019. The prosecution led by the state produced only three witnesses against Singh in court: his aunt Kalibai, as an eyewitness; his cousin and alleged complainant Vaskel; and the investigating officer sub-inspector M.K. Raghuvanshi.
During the investigation of the case, the police claimed to have recovered one Bible and three other Christian books from Singh. These were the ‘Masihi Kaleeshia ki dharmik vidhiyo ki kitaab’, ‘Kaleeshia ka Mission evam Lakshit Sthan’ and ‘Isa Masih aur uski Kaleeshia’. A broken necklace of black pearls, a steel ‘cross’ bearing an image of Jesus, a small steel ‘cross’ with a tiny idol of Jesus, and a copy of the Hanuman Chalisa with eight pages burned were also allegedly recovered from the spot.
The case, however, collapsed in court. The two main witnesses of the prosecution – Vaskel and his mother Kalibai – contradicted the charges against Singh.
Vaskel said that Singh had come to his house to see his parents who were unwell and had started praying for them. While this was happening, some locals came to the house and started accusing Singh of unlawful conversions. Vaskel said that Singh was taken to the Kukshi police station, where the villagers submitted a written application to the police against him. Vaskel told the court that he was also made to sign it.
In his cross examination, Vaskel told the court that Singh did not say anything related to conversions in his house, nor did he abuse any Hindu deity or goddess. It was the local people who came and accused him of conversion, Vaskel said. In her testimony, Kalibai said that she had no knowledge of the matter except that when her nephew Singh came home, a dispute broke out over hosting him.
Singh, who has two children aged 13 and 14, says he conducted prayers for Vaskel’s mother or his maternal aunt to comfort her. Talking of the positive changes in his own life after he started praying to Jesus Christ, he said, “When someone prays, they stop consuming liquor. They stop abusing. They become cautious and alert. They become good humans and want to stay away from violence and any kind of squabbles.”
On April 15, 2024, judicial magistrate (first division) Dhar, Dipendra Malu acquitted Singh of all charges. The two witnesses produced by the police did not support the prosecution case. They refuted all the allegations against Singh: forced conversion, burning of the Hanuman Chalisa, insulting Hindu deities, removing their images and idols, and issuing threats.
The prosecution story appears doubtful, observed Judge Malu in his 11-page verdict in Hindi. The evidence on record does not prove beyond reasonable doubt the allegations against Singh, he said.
The court also ruled that the investigating officer did not seek the necessary authorisation of the government or the district magistrate before presenting the case under Section 153A (IPC) in court. Section 153A of the IPC requires prior government sanction for initiating prosecution as it deals with the prosecution of crimes against state and criminal conspiracies to commit such crimes.
Section 196 of the Code of Criminal Procedure says that a court can only take cognisance of such offences with the prior sanction of the state or Union government.
Where the proceedings for prosecuting or taking cognisance of an offence are defective, the accused cannot be convicted of such offence, said Judge Malu.
“From the investigation and the evidence on record, it is not proved beyond reasonable doubt that the accused directly or otherwise converted or attempted to convert the complainant Vaskel and his family members from one religion to another religion or by words spoken or written or by signs or by visible representations or otherwise promoted or attempted to promote feelings of disharmony or enmity, hatred or ill-will between different religious communities on the ground of religion,” said Malu.
Vaskel and his mother could not be reached.
*Names changed to protect victims’ anonymity.