Hindu nationalists disrupt prayer service at grotto in Kalinjara village, Rajasthan, India. (Morning Star News screenshot from video)
NEW DELHI (Morning Star News) – Catholics in India arrested in May under Rajasthan’s new “anti-conversion law” are still trying to obtain bail from the state High Court after lower courts denied their petitions, sources said.
Their arrests followed a disruption of their Mass by “cow vigilantes” – self-styled protectors of cows regarded as sacred in Hinduism – in Kalinjara village, Kushalgarh Sub-Division, Banswara District on May 1. About a dozen vigilantes disrupted and filmed 80 Catholics gathered at a Marian grotto for the traditional nine days of prayer at about 5:30 p.m.
“The vigilantes said we had gathered to perform mass conversion and blamed us for possessing beef [cow meat],” said Reetu Rawat, whose husband and father-in-law were among 14 Catholics named in a First Information Report (FIR). A Protestant Christian was also charged for a total of 15 named persons, and the FIR was registered against 100 unnamed people.
Six of the nine Catholics arrested under Rajasthan state’s new “anti-conversion law” are awaiting a bail decision from the state High Court after subsequent denials from the lower courts, while 11 others named in the FIR but yet not arrested are in hiding and seeking interim bail, sources said.
“This is a real bad news for Christians,” said Mukesh Rawat, a Protestant Christian in the nearby village of Kushalgarh. “People in the village are living in constant fear, as they too can be arrested anytime of the day or night, and their names can be placed under the 100 unnamed list in the FIR.”
The 15 named and the 100 unnamed persons on May 2 were charged under the anti-conversion law and other laws with various crimes, including attempted murder.
“There were women and children besides men attending the celebration of the Eucharist, and they [the intruders] started to film by walking all over the place and disrupting the service,” Reetu Rawat told Morning Star News.
Kalinjara is a majority-Catholic, tribal village where Catholicism has been practiced for more than a century. Besides some Protestant families, the remaining villagers follow tribal religion.
Those attending the prayer service questioned the vigilantes, demanding an explanation for the disruption. The vigilantes accused them of “converting people” – which is not a crime in India – and later in the FIR charged them with “allurement.” Rajasthan’s “anti-conversion law” criminalizes “force, allurement or fraudulent” conversion.
A video on social media shows the Catholics, in response to allegations of forced conversions, telling the vigilantes to ask those present if any of them is not a Catholic or “if anybody is coaxed to attend the service.” The vigilantes continue to record video and admit that “we will film you and frame you.”
When the worshippers request the vigilantes to report their grievances and doubts to police, the intruders respond that it was the police that sent them, the video shows.
As the argument went on for about half an hour, one of the Catholics noticed a vigilante hiding a black dagger in the folds of his garment.
“When he confronted the vigilante, the vigilante slapped him,” Reetu Rawat said.
The Rev. Balveer Rana, district president of Masih Sewa Samiti, a Christian community service and welfare committee of Banswara, said those attending the Mass defended themselves in the ensuing altercation.
“Fearing he might use the dagger to attack the community, they restrained the vigilantes from attacking them,” Rana told Morning Star News. “There was a scuffle between the two groups. The vigilante began to hit the Catholics, and in self-defense they too retaliated.”
Reetu Rawat said there was a little blood on the forehead of the vigilante.
The vigilantes immediately fled, and police arrived within a few minutes.
“It was quite evident that the police were stationed somewhere nearby, and if the vigilantes are to be believed, they confessed that they had come with the full knowledge of the police,” the Rev. Arvind Amliyar, priest of Bandaria Parish in Kushalgarh told Morning Star News. “Kalinjara does not have a parish building, and so the congregants attend Mass with the Bandaria Parish in Kushalgarh and on some occasions gather at the grotto in the village for special prayers.”
Mukesh Rawat, who lives four miles from Kalinjara, said his Catholic mother was visiting him that day. He drove her back on his motorbike and on the way, he noticed the Catholics gathered at the grotto.
While Mukesh Rawat was with his mother in her house, someone informed them that there was a scuffle between the Hindu nationalist cow vigilantes and the Catholics at the grotto. Mukesh Rawat’s father Anil Rawat, his brother and sister-in-law were at the grotto at the time.
“I thought it might be a minor issue, and so I did not go to the grotto to check,” he said.
Police arriving during the altercation immediately arrested Mukesh Rawat’s 67-year-old father, who is a retired school principal, and Catholics identified only as Aatish, Devchand and Nilesh and took them to the Kalinjara Police Station.
“Though they were arrested around 6 in the evening,” Mukesh Rawat said, “an FIR was registered after midnight 12:17 a.m. on May 2 against 14 named Catholics, me – a Protestant – and 100 unnamed people.”
They were charged under FIR No. 154 under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita [BNSS] 2023 for general rioting, punishable by up to two years in prison, a fine or both; involvement of weapons, punishable by up to five years in prison; wrongful restraint, punishable by up to one month in prison, a fine or both; attempted murder, punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a fine; intentional insult and provoking to breach peace; and unlawful assembly. Under the Rajasthan Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2025, Section 3, which prohibits attempting to convert through force, coercion, undue influence, misrepresentation, allurement, fraudulent means, or marriage; and under Section 5, which requires mandatory advance declarations for religious conversion.
“We were all gathered for the Mass, how can they book us for carrying weapons?” said Reetu Rawat, whose husband is named in the FIR.
Amliyar added, “We did not breach peace, but it was the cow vigilantes who breached our peace and cause havoc.”
Besides Mukesh Rawat, who was not even near the scene but with his mother at her home about 1,000 meters from the grotto, also named in the FIR was Premchand, who was in the Civil Hospital Banswada donating blood at the time and has documentation to prove it. A person identified in the FIR only as Kishor, son of Josaf, is deaf and mute. Another identified only as Rajesh was also named, though he is a non-Christian tribal who was a mere bystander.
Police returned on the night of May 3-4 and arrested five others under the “unnamed” category: Nitesh, 30, son of Premchand; Dilip Haliya, 34; Vardesh Babu, 26; Praveen Shamji, 33; and Pankaj Damore, 27.
“Police came in the night at 2 a.m. and barged into homes, picked people who were fast asleep with their families and arrested them,” said a source who requested anonymity.
He also said that police got two men on May 2 around 6 p.m. and made them stand near the grotto to video record their testimony. Witnessed by several bystanders, the two men were recorded falsely saying that they were offered money to convert to Christianity.
Reetu Rawat said the two men were not present on the day of incident.
“The several videos shot of May 1 clearly show the vigilantes and all of us present there,” Reetu Rawat told Morning Star News. “The videos also show the kind of conversations both the sides had.”
The nine Catholics arrested were sent to jail and have remained there. Of the 15 “named people” in the FIR, 11 have been in hiding since May 2.
Police are searching for the others in and around the village to arrest them.
“For fear of getting arrested, some are spending their nights on trees, others in the forest amidst the threat of being attacked by wild animals,” said Mukesh Rawat. “It has become very, very difficult for us to stay away from home each day, and it seems that this torture is not coming to an end.”
Catholic leaders applied for bail for six of the people.
“We thought on the basis of the bail orders of these six, we will apply for the other three and an interim bail for those who are on the run for the fear of being arrested,” said Amliyar.
Their bail, however, was rejected in the District Court and then in the Sessions Court and is now pending in the High Court.
“With every hearing, the date is being extended,” Amliyar said. “Their last hearing was on May 26, but a next date of June 8 has been given to them.”
Hindu groups called for a complete shutdown of the entire Kushalgarh block on May 4 and carried out a protest rally shouting slogans and demanding that all the Catholics be arrested for butchering a cow and carrying out forced conversion.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma visited the Kushalgarh area on May 20, and Christians fear his visit was designed to pressure authorities to strictly prosecute those attending the Mass.
Tribals have had cordial relationship with each other, said Pastor Varji Rawat, who lives a mile away from Kalinjara village.
“Two in a family are Christ followers, two in the same family are Shiva followers, and another two are animists. Yet they live peacefully under the same roof,” the pastor told Morning Star News. “It is a tribals’ choice to have faith on whom ever he/she wants to. It’s a personal choice, like some tribals choose to worship Hindu gods [though they are not Hindus], they are not stopped from putting their faith in Hinduism.”
He objected to villagers questioning worshippers’ faith.
“These people have been practicing Catholicism for more than 100 years, and they are being treated as if they are recent converts,” the pastor said.
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- Hindu nationalists disrupt prayer service at grotto in Kalinjara village, Rajasthan, India. (Morning Star News screenshot from video)
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