India News | 2 Arrested in UP for Outraging Religious Feelings, Hunt on for 3

Bahraich (UP), Aug 17 (PTI) The police have arrested two people and booked three others for allegedly outraging religious feelings of some people in Risia area here.

"An FIR was registered against five people under IPC sections 153 A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion), 295 A (deliberate acts to outrage religious feelings) and 298 (uttering words with deliberate intent to wound religious feelings) following a complaint by Anil Kumar Nishad of Shahnawajpur village," Inspector Hemant Kumar Gaur said on Tuesday.

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The complainant alleged that Manoj Kumar and Ranjit Kumar were promoting Christianity in the region and the other three accused--Lal Bahadur, Indrajit Yadav, Prahlad--were helping them in their cause.

The police officer, however, said no case of forced religious conversion has so far come to their notice.

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"We have arrested Bahadur and Yadav, and efforts are on to trace the others who are absconding," Gaur said.

The complainant also claimed that he was assaulted by the accused after he filed the complaint against them.

Meanwhile, in a video which has gone viral, Nishad alleged that a "gang" was converting people in the area for the last several years.

“In Shahnawajpur gram panchayat, 30-40 families do not celebrate Deepawali, Holi and Dussehra, and have almost left the culture of ‘Sanatan Dharma',” he said in the video.

He further added that such people's network was spreading fast and they were convincing people to change their religion.

Meanwhile, a villager, Bablu, wrote to the chief minister and the district magistrate alleging that his younger brother's wife and her maternal relatives had converted to Christianity under the influence of some people.

District Magistrate Dinesh Chandra has started an investigation into the incident.

The RSS and other right-wing organisations have demanded a thorough probe into the matter.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)