Indian police left the pastor’s two young children and his wife, leaving the wife behind when they arrested the couple on charges of being forged, and other officers later detained and defeated the child’s mother, sources said.
The couple was released on bail last month after being arrested on July 27 along with three other Christians allegedly “forced conversion” in Uttar Pradesh.
“We were framed under a fully manufactured incident,” said Rev. Vinod Pal Singh, 34, who was released along with his wife on August 21st, “We were framed under a fully manufactured incident.”
Five Christians and two others were accused of trying to force and pressure a 23-year-old man, who was only identified as Abhishek, to convert to Christianity, according to the first information report (FIR) filed at Imaliya Sultanpur Police Station in Sitapur district on July 27th based on his complaints.
Police arrested Pastor Singh, his wife Jyoti Devi, Anortram Maurya and his two sons Ramit and Shubkaran. Sanjay Maurya and Patiram (identified only by his name) had already left the church location by then and avoided arrest.
The two sons, Pastor Singh, 4 and 7, who were in the church building when police arrived, were left behind after officers arrested their parents from the property.
“We later learned in prison and in prison that we cried for our mother for a few days after we were taken,” Pastor Singh said.
Church members arranged for the child’s maternal grandparents to take care of them.
The district court granted Christian bail on August 11 after the lower court refused bail. Maurya’s family was released from prison on August 14th, but Pastor Singh and his wife faced extensive document delays and were not released until August 21st.
“Pastor Vinod Pas is from Rakhanpur Kyeri, a separate district from Sitapur, so it was extremely difficult to secure bonds,” Suresh Kumar, a friend who helped with the bail process, told Morningstar News. “It took a lot of time to find a guarantor on government holidays and verifying the documents, causing delays.”
Manufactured case
Pastor Singh leads the Vishwa Bani (literally translated “Voice to the Universe”) church in Sitapur, part of the sectarian and indigenous church planting movement founded in 1980.
Sitapur Church has been active for 15 years and has never encountered such serious opposition.
As Pastor Singh led the Sunday service on July 27th, around 25 men from Hindu extremist Hindu Parishad entered a prayer hall where around 12:30pm, around 80 congregation members were present.
The intruder recorded a video of the service and ordered all congregations members to leave. They then began questioning Rev. Singh, his wife, three members of the Maurya family, and the owner of the facility where the church facility was built.
They asked Pastor Singh if he was doing coercive conversion there.
“‘Where do you get money for such a job?” They hit me and asked,” he said.
For about two hours they questioned him and he said they overturned everything in the hall.
“They overturned the pulpit, broke the keyboard and chairs, and destroyed everything they could find,” Pastor Singh added that he and his wife had operated. “They recorded videos of the destroyed churches, gathered all the Bible and literature, and sent them together to the police station.”
Hindu extremist intruders invited the media inside, took photos, created videos published by each outlet, and reported a totally different story.
“No one interviewed us or cross-checked the false stories presented by Hindu extremists,” Pastor Singh said.
Imalya police arrived later and Hindu extremists told officers to arrest couples and others, using the confiscated Bible as evidence of “forced conversion.”
Police arrested five Christians and confiscated Pastor Singh’s bike. After Rev. Singh and others appeared before the Magistrate, he discovered that he was one Abhishek, an Abhishek whom he had never met or heard of.
“This is a completely fake story presented by Hindu extremists,” Pastor Singh said. “I have never met or known Abhishek, and all the stories about me trying to seduce Abhishek and put pressure on me to convert to Christianity have been forged.”
In his complaints, Abhishek reported that he had been through the village when someone told him that someone was treating the sick, so he went to see them. Abhishek claims that Anantram Maurya and his sons approached him, pointing to Rev. Singh and his wife on the stage, giving him a lot of money and lining up his marriage with a lovely girl, but only if he converts to Christianity.
In his complaint, Abhishek stated that he had met Rev. Singh and his wife, and they showed him the Bible and said, “I put water in a bottle, cursed it, and gave me a drink.”
According to the complaints, Sanjay Maurya and Pathiram joined them and began to pressure Abhishek to convert to Christianity. Abhishek left the hall and called members of VHP and Bajrang Dal, told them about the entire incident and notified the police.
“The police arrived there and confiscated a bottle containing three Bibles, healing water and oil, a box of sweets, a dholak (hand drum) and a kanjali (tambourine).
“Is it a crime to have an instrument inside a church?” Christian rights advocate, who requested anonymity, told MorningStar News. “Is it a crime to have your own religious books like the Bible in a church? How can you confiscate these and present them as “items used for conversion”? ”
Just as the Bible is commonly found in church locations, the Quran is generally found in mosques, supporters said.
“How can police be groomed and not used common sense before registering such complaints?” he said. “When police detained Singh and the others, Abhishek was not there, but the police forced Hindu extremists to create this story.”
Beaten in prison
Police detained Rev. Singh and the other pastors for three days before transferring them to Sitapur Prison.
“My wife was assaulted inside the police station during an interrogation by a female police officer,” the pastor said. “They asked how many people we have, where we receive support, and how many pastors we have in the area.”
Jyoti suffered an internal injury from the be hit and “still have severe pain in his leg,” Pastor Singh said.
He and his wife faced discrimination in their respective wards, he said.
“The guards were treating us badly at first,” he said. “They apparently received instructions from a senior official that we were arrested in a forced conversion case and should assign us the reverse broken work.”
However, after three or four days, their attitude towards Pastor Singh and the other pastors changed.
“In the beginning, my wife was very disappointed, especially remembering the trauma that our children were experiencing,” he said. “But afterwards the Lord comforted her, strengthened her, and gave her courage. She clung to the Lord and continued to share God’s love with her fellow prisoners.”
Pastor Singh was allowed to see his wife for 30 minutes every Sunday. They encouraged each other to be patient and trust in them.
“I secretly prayed every night. Most of the inmates had a heartfelt curse, but I cursed me and accused him of doing the same thing in the prison where I was arrested,” he said.
Police released him and his wife from prison around 9pm on August 21, but his motorbike remains in police custody. Singh will have to pay 18,000 rupees (204 USD) to secure the release. Police have visited Singh’s house three times since being released from prison.
“They ask who I am, what I am and what I am and where I am,” he said.
Former Hindu Pastor Singh accepted Christ in 2011 and has served as pastor since 2016.
“I have faced many times in the past, but after a peaceful discussion, the problem sinks,” he said. “This is the first time I’ve been arrested based on false testimony from someone I don’t know.”
Pastor Singh’s faith remains immobilized as many people begin to question God.
“Jesus asked us to be prepared for such a situation, and I really think we should be prepared,” he said. “The authorities truly believe that they are appointed by the Lord and he has allowed this in our lives for his glory. It will come when the judge will dismiss all false claims against us.
Christian support organization Open Door ranks 11th in India on the 2025 global watch list where Christians face the toughest persecution. India came in 31st in 2013, but has steadily fallen in the rankings since Narendra Modi took power as prime minister.
Defenders of religious rights have denounced the increasingly hostile rhetoric of the National Democratic Alliance government led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, who said that since Modi came to power in May 2014, he has encouraged Hindu extremists in India.
