The Aryavarth Express
Agency (New Delhi): The Supreme Court on Thursday halted criminal proceedings in a trial court in Uttar Pradesh related to five FIRs against the vice-chancellor of Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences (SHUATS), Rajendra Bihari Lal, and others. The accusations involve illegal conversion of Hindus to Christianity.
The top court, which has previously granted protection from arrest and bail to the accused, rejected the Uttar Pradesh government’s request to allow trial court proceedings to continue. “There should not be further proceedings in connection with the FIRs in the trial court in the case,” stated a bench comprising Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra.
The bench acknowledged arguments from senior advocate Siddharth Dave, representing SHUATS VC Lal, who requested the trial court proceedings be stayed to prevent the accused from having to appear following summons issued due to fresh charge sheets filed by the state police. Senior lawyer Mukta Gupta, representing another accused, pointed out that the state police had not recorded the testimony of any alleged victims who were claimed to have been lured into Christianity.
The bench will resume the hearing on August 2. Previously, the court had scheduled a final hearing on the nine petitions seeking the quashing or consolidation of the five FIRs against the SHUATS VC and others concerning alleged illegal religious conversions.
The charges against Lal include offenses under sections 307 (attempt to murder), 504 (intentional insult with an aim to provoke a breach of peace), and 386 (extortion) of the Indian Penal Code, as well as provisions of the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021.
The Supreme Court has intermittently protected the accused from arrest regarding the FIRs filed in Fatehpur. The Uttar Pradesh Police had previously informed the court that Lal and the other accused were the “main perpetrators” of a large-scale religious conversion program funded by about 20 countries. Police also labeled Lal a “notorious criminal” involved in 38 cases over the last two decades, including cheating and murder, registered across Uttar Pradesh.
The police alleged that approximately 90 Hindus congregated at the Evangelical Church of India in Hariharganj, Fatehpur, to convert to Christianity and were subjected to “undue influence, coercion, and lured through fraud and the promise of easy money.”