Police in Guna, Madhya Pradesh, have arrested pastor Uttam Barela for running a religious conversion racket under the guise of “faith healing” in Mohanpur Khurd village. An FIR was lodged by the police on Friday (10th April) against two pastors, namely Uttam Barela and Vikas Barela, after they organised a large prayer session on 5th April in the name of Easter, allegedly trying to lure local tribal people to convert to Christianity. The police are looking for the second accused, Vikas Barela.
Following the registration of the FIR, SP Hitika Vasal issued directions for the arrest of the accused pastors. Three teams of police were formed, led by ASP Mansingh Thakur, SDOP Vivek Asthana, and Station In-charge TI Brajmohan Bhadoria, to trace and arrest the accused. While the search for the accused was on, police received inputs about the location of Uttam Barela and nabbed him.
The police came to know about the ‘healing session’ from the complainant, identified as Brijesh Bairagi from Karod village, who witnessed the event. In his complaint filed with the police, Bairagi said that while he was passing through Mihanpur Khurd village on 5th April, he saw that a large number of people had gathered under a tent, where a healing session was going on. He said that inside the tent, pastors were placing their hands on people’s heads, “performing rituals, and claiming that serious illnesses—including cancer could be cured through faith in the Christian religion”.
Bairagi further said that the local tribals were being lured by the pastors with the promise of medical treatment and financial aid. During the prayer session, two goats and around 40 chickens were slaughtered to prepare a feast for nearly 300-400 people, who were mostly from the Bhil tribal community. Villagers were invited to attend prayer sessions where it was claimed that diseases could be cured and addictions could be overcome through prayer. A large number of people attended the event, where individuals were prayed over for relief from illnesses.
According to Bairagi, the pastors allegedly threatened people that if they refused to convert, it would result in their illness becoming incurable and permanent. They also assured the people that after converting, they would not be required to change their names or castes, and thus they would continue to avail benefits of government schemes meant for them.
As per reports, young villagers educated at missionary institutions such as the Naya Jeevan Mission School in Datia are being sent to villages to dismantle their own communities. Locals suspect the involvement of a wide missionary network and foreign funding in the conversion activities. The police are probing whether a wide network is at work behind such mass conversion events disguised as healing sessions.
