A Christian couple in India convicted of forcible conversion despite lack of evidence and sentenced to five years in prison has won bail while they appeal, sources said.
Pastor Jose Pappachen, 58, and his wife Sheeja Pappachen, 57, were released on Feb. 19 after a Sessions Court in Ambedkar Nagar, Uttar Pradesh on Jan. 22 sentenced them to prison and a fine of 25,000 rupees ($287 USD) each under the state’s stringent anti-conversion law. The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court granted bail to the pastor on Feb. 6 and to his wife on Feb. 5.
Pastor Pappachen said all the allegations against them were fabricated. He and his wife are not associated with any church or denomination and were surviving on 10,000 rupees ($115 USD) every month.
“After paying 4,000 rupees house rent each month, we were left with only 6,000 rupees to survive on for the month – how could we possibly afford to organize community lunches or pay people to convert?” Pastor Pappachen told Morning Star News.
After Chandrika Prasad, district minister of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, filed a written complaint at Jalalpur police station in Ambedkar Nagar District on Jan. 24, 2023, police arrested the couple under two statutes: the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021 and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
On Oct. 8, 2023, however, the court ordered the removal of charges under the SC/ST Act from the First Information Report (FIR).
Prasad alleged that area residents had informed him that the Christian couple were enticing members of the Dalit community to convert to Christianity over the previous three months and demanded strict action against them.
The couple was arrested on Jan. 25, 2023 from their home in Shahpur Firojpur village in Jalalpur block. Police reports stated that the couple weekly visited the home of a woman named Vifla, where they gathered local residents and conducted Bible study sessions, Pastor Pappachen said. He denied the allegations.
“The woman in whose house they claimed we held Bible study testified in court that she does not even know us,” Pastor Pappachen told Morning Star News.
A resident of Kerala state, Pastor Pappachen and his wife had ministered in Bihar state for nearly 10 years before they moved to Shahpur Firojpur in September 2022 at the request of a pastor who lacked time to mentor his congregation.
“He asked us to come to this village and strengthen his congregation here,” said Pastor Pappachen, who knew no one beside the pastor who invited them.
Upon arrival, the couple discovered that the 20-25 members of the congregation belonged to a sector that survived by stealing and robbing.
“They had not mended their ways, so we began teaching them the basic truth from the Bible about living transformed lives,” said Pastor Pappachen, refuting the allegation of carrying out “mass conversion” through allurement. “These people are not my congregation. They were all already attending church, and we did not preach to a single person, nor has a single person been added to the already established church. We were just doing a job of ‘repairing and mending’ those who were given to us.”
Court records show that one of the 11 prosecution witnesses, identified only as Roshini, told police the couple would celebrate the birth of Christ in their village and would organize community lunches. She also said the couple gifted her a calendar that had a picture of Jesus on it, and she had surrendered the calendar to the police. Another prosecution witness, identified only as Bhagmani and also known as Munni stated that the couple would visit her house, praying and teaching “good things.”
By contrast, a prosecution witness identified only as Anjani said the couple bribed her family with money, asked them to worship Jesus and gave them a Bible, though she later acknowledged that her family did not know how to read and write. She alleged that the couple wanted to take advantage of their illiteracy and lure them to Christianity.
Pastor Pappachen denied the allegation, noting that, as they were illiterate, “Then why would anybody give them a book to read, let alone a Bible?”
Despite no clear evidence of forced conversion, a lower court denied their initial bail plea, and the couple languished in jail for eight months.
Pastor Pappachen was housed in the men’s section of the prison while his wife was detained in the women’s wing, and they were permitted to meet only once a week.
The couple faced extreme hardships, he said. Besides being a diabetic, Pastor Pappachen suffers from prostrate issue and had to be hospitalized for three months while in prison. He faced breathing difficulty, and severe knee pain rendered him unable to walk.
“I felt very weak in my body,” he said.
The pastor said inmates and policemen verbally harassed him as someone “in the business of converting people,” and that the 50 inmates in his cell treated him with prejudice and contempt.
“Even prisoners arrested for serious crimes like rape and murder would warn others to maintain distance from me, claiming I could convert anyone who sat beside me within a minute,” Pastor Pappachen said.
Policemen would ask him several questions about his grandfather and great-grandfather, trying to prove that his ancestors were Hindus and had later converted. They asked him why Jesus was crucified on a cross – what were His crimes? – and whether Christians cremated or buried their dead.
“I said nothing, because I knew they were looking for an excuse to scorn Jesus and my faith,” he said.
Tired of their questioning, Pastor Pappachen one day told a policeman, “I was born in a Christian home, I grew up as a Christian, I will die a Christian. Even if you hang me, I will not deny Christ.”
An officer declared that from that time on, everybody in the jail should address him as “Ram Dulari,” a female name meaning beloved of the Hindu god Rama.
“Besides my physical ailments, the mental trauma that the policemen and the inmates were inflicting on me was causing me severe depression. I would continuously sit and weep,” Pastor Pappachen told Morning Star News.
The relentless harassment eventually pushed him to such desperation that he begged police officers to shoot him and “report it as an encounter killing,” he said.
During this time, the district court rejected bail for the couple, and the couple’s attorney appealed to the High Court for bail.
“I felt that we will rot and die there, because all those who came before and after us got bail and were out,” the pastor said.
He decided to fast and pray, eating only one meal a day.
“The Lord pointed out many of my shortcomings. I repented of my sins and after 30 days of my fasting, we got bail” in September 2023, he said.
During trial they attended around 30 court hearings before they were convicted on Jan. 22 and detained again.
“We were mentally prepared that even if we are convicted, it is for the Lord,” said Pastor Pappachen, adding that he witnessed a drastic difference in his treatment in jail.
“People in the jail treated us so well,” he said. “The policemen had a ‘transformation of heart,’ and they confessed that we were innocent people, framed falsely.”
The couple did not expect to obtain bail so quickly.
“It was nothing short of a miracle that we were granted bail so soon,” said Pastor Pappachen. “We are so grateful to all those who prayed for us and to all those who stood with us.”
The couple has not been told when the High Court might summon them for any potential further questioning, which could take place within the next 18 months.
The hostile tone of India’s government against non-Hindus has emboldened Hindu extremists and others to attack Christians since Narendra Modi took power in May 2014, religious rights advocates say.
India ranked 11th on Christian support organization Open Doors’ 2025 World Watch List of the countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian. The country was 31st in 2013, but its position worsened after Modi came to power.
