Lucknow: The Barabanki police on Monday arrested a man from Lonikatra police station area for allegedly converting poor people to Christianity.
Police said the accused Bajrang Ram, originally hailing from Mohanlalganj in Lucknow, used to live in a makeshift house at Mangalpur railway crossing along with his family for the last one year.
Lonikatra SHO Ajay Tripathi said an FIR was lodged on the complaint of Vijay Hindustani and Om Prakash Singh who spotted Bajrang organising a prayer meet to convert poor people. They then informed UP 112.
“Allegations are that Bajrang used to search for poor people first to provide them with food and clothes and then lure them to convert to Christianity. Locals claimed that more than 20 people have been forcefully converted to Christianity by Bajrang,” said Tripathi citing the FIR.
He said Bajrang will be taken into police custody remand for further questioning.
In the last one week, 35 people have been arrested for forcefully converting poor people to Christianity in Bahraich.
Also, 31 people have been booked in seven separate cases related to alleged forced conversions in rural areas of Uttar Pradesh in June. These cases were registered in Sitapur, Ambedkarnagar, Kanpur and Rampur districts. Maximum 23 people have been booked in Sitapur in three cases.
