Religious Conversion: Allahabad HC Refuses to Quash FIR against SHUATS VC, Ors

The Allahabad High Court has declined to quash an FIR filed against the vice-chancellor and other officials of an agriculture university regarding an illegal religious conversion case, directing them to surrender before it by December 20 for regular bail.

The accused individuals, including Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture Technology and Science (SHUATS) vice-chancellor Rajendra Bihari Lal and director Vinod Bihari Lal, are alleged to have induced a woman to convert to Christianity by offering her a job and other incentives.

In disposing of a petition filed by the VC, the director, and four others, a division bench of Justices Rahul Chaturvedi and Mohd Azhar Husain Idrisi remarked that “no God or true church or temple or mosque would approve such type of malpractices.”

The court stated, “If someone on his own has chosen to get himself converted to a different religion, it is a totally different aspect of the issue. In the instant case, prevailing upon a tender mind of a young girl, providing gifts, clothing, and other physical amenities, and then asking her to get baptized is an unpardonable sin.”

The officials, including the VC, are facing charges under sections of the Indian Penal Code, including 376D (gang rape), as well as those of the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021, and the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act. The FIR was filed at the Bewar police station of Hamirpur district on November 4 based on a complaint from the woman. According to the FIR, the woman, from a lower-middle-class family, was allegedly lured to church regularly by another woman. The victim has claimed that she was consistently sexually exploited by the accused and pressured to bring other women for conversion and other illicit activities.

The petitioners’ counsel argued that the victim was offered a job at SHUATS and was terminated from service in 2022. Therefore, in retaliation, she concocted a story in the FIR to implicate all the higher officials of the university, including the VC, the plea stated.

While refusing to quash the FIR, the court noted that the allegations in the FIR are extremely serious and horrifying, as the accused exploited her financial position and enticed her to change sides, ultimately succeeding in doing so. The court highlighted that the allegations in the FIR are not only abhorrent but also distasteful, narrating a sad story of sexual exploitation.

However, without making any judgment on the investigation’s outcome, the court directed the Hamirpur superintendent of police to personally supervise the probe conducted by three senior police officers of circle officer rank with utmost transparency. It also directed the SP to objectively conduct the investigation and thoroughly probe the matter within 90 days, submitting a report before the magistrate.