UPDATE: The next appeal hearing in the case of Pastor Ramesh Ahirwar and his wife Sakshi Ahirwar has been scheduled for 30 April 2024.
Pastor Ramesh Ahirwar and his wife Sakshi Ahirwar from Viveknagar Bhansa village near Sagar in Madhya Pradesh state have each been sentenced to two years in prison and a fine of 25,000 rupees (€280) after Hindu extremists accused them of “forcible conversion” under the state’s anti-conversion laws.
They denied the charge but were convicted and sentenced on 11 March 2024 at the Trial Court of Sagar district, despite the fact that the woman they are accused of pressurising to convert denied in court that they had tried to forcibly or fraudulently convert her or her husband.
The couple’s conviction is the first under Madhya Pradesh’s anti-conversion law. “I am shocked at the conviction,” the pastor told Morning Star News. “The charges against us are baseless and utterly untrue.”
Pastor Ramesh and Sakshi appealed to the High Court and are currently out on bail while their appeal is processed. Their first appeal hearing was held on 5 April at the High Court in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, and the court extended the order of bail granted by the trial court until the next hearing.
Accused
Pastor Ramesh said he was on a trip to Delhi in October 2021 when members of the Hindu extremist organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) incited a man named Abhishek Ahirwar to accuse the couple of abducting his estranged wife, pressurising her to convert to Christianity and trying to fraudulently convert him too. (The surname he shares with the pastor is a clan name found among Dalits in parts of northern India.)
Pastor Ramesh had previously helped to arrange the marriage of Abhishek Ahirwar and his wife, both Hindus, but she left him and returned to her parents’ home. Pastor Ramesh told Morning Star News, “Abhishek said that I kept his wife against her wishes, and that I am not allowing her to go back to her husband’s house – also, that I pressured her to convert and offered to construct a house for her and give her 20,000 rupees [€220] every month in return and that I offered him 20,000 rupees every month if he converted to Christianity.”
Abhishek Ahirwar comes from a neighbouring village and is the son of a mason hired by Pastor Ramesh in the construction of his house church building in 2021. The pastor commented, “I suspect that members of the RSS offered to help the mason’s son to intervene in saving his marriage and in return asked him to help them frame me in the case, so that my church is shut.”
“Chaos and discrepancy” in court
Abhishek Ahirwar’s wife testified in court that she was neither coerced into changing her religion nor offered any monetary incentive, Pastor Ramesh said. She testified that he did not offer any money to her husband either and that he did not pressurise her to refrain from returning to her husband’s house.
“There was a lot of chaos and discrepancy among the statements of the complainant, his father, their witnesses,” Pastor Ramesh said. “I was very confident that after recording everybody’s statement, the court would set us free. But sadly, that did not happen. The court pronounced us guilty.”
A Christian leader from Madhya Pradesh told Morning Star News on condition of anonymity that the judge seemed prejudiced or under duress to convict the couple, saying: “It is not uncommon to have only adverse judgments against religious minorities in lower courts or even high courts nowadays. It is only in the Supreme Court and in selective cases that justice can be expected.”
Background
Ramesh and Sakshi, both 41, have ministered in Sagar since 2012 and live with their three children (20, 18 and 14). The pastor has led the independent Prarthana Bhawan (House of Prayer) church since 2018.
Pastor Ramesh said that in 2021 the mason requested that he search for a matrimonial match for his son, and that he found a Hindu bride. Within the first few months of marriage the groom’s family began to trouble her for a dowry so she returned to her parents’ home and refused to go back.
The husband’s family repeatedly asked Pastor Ramesh to intervene, but he insisted they speak with the wife’s family directly. The pastor said the RSS then apparently offered to help the husband regain his wife in exchange for him framing the Christian couple.
On 20 October 2021 Abhishek Ahirwar registered a First Information Report (FIR) against the couple and the pastor’s father-in-law, Nathuram Ahirwar (75). “Abhishek narrated a completely made-up story in the FIR, stating that on October 10 and 11 2021 I allured him to convert to Christianity,” Pastor Ramesh said.
Police summoned the pastor the same day and after interrogation he left. They arrested him around twenty days later and the district court released him on a bail bond. Around ten days after the pastor was detained, police arrested Sakshi and her father and presented them before the district court – they were sent to jail until they obtained bail three days later.
Pastor Ramesh, his wife and father-in-law attended court proceedings every month for more than two years. “All three of us had to be present in the courtroom, sometimes once a month and other times twice a month,” the pastor said.
The court acquitted Nathuram for lack of evidence on 11 March. Later that day the lawyer for the Christian couple filed a bail application, which was subsequently granted. An appeal challenging the verdict was filed in the High Court on 22 March, the case was registered on 1 April and the first hearing was held on 5 April.
“I had no finances to appeal in the High Court,” said Pastor Ramesh. “I had to arrange for 50,000 rupees [€560] before I could appeal. It seemed impossible to arrange, with my current situation, until someone whom I don’t want to name offered to help me with the fees and arrange for a lawyer for me.”
Threats
The pastor said he has been unable to lead his house church since the 11 March verdict, explaining: “The right-wing mob has been eyeing me. They came to my house in my absence with sticks and threatened my family of dire consequences if I held the church worship services.”
Since the court pronounced judgment, Hindu nationalists have been circulating messages against Pastor Ramesh and his family daily. “They are bringing up my matter on social media and newspapers to create pressure on the judiciary and to turn the villagers against me,” he said.
He and his wife fear that their children will be left alone, and the family has no source of income. “I am not discouraged, because whatever is happening to us is according to the Bible,” the pastor said. “But, when we look at the children, we fear what will happen to them when we are sent to jail.”
He added, “My wife has health issues, and I fear how will she manage in the jail. We do fear the uncertainties of the future but choose to trust God.”
(Morning Star News)
Photo credit: Morning Star News