Jaipur: A case of illegal conversion has been registered against two Christian missionaries under the provisions of the Rajasthan Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion Act, which was recently implemented in the state, it has been reported. Delhi resident Chandy Varghese and Kota resident Arun John were taken into custody in the case registered on a complaint filed by Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal activists, said Devesh Bharadwaj, officer-in-charge of Borkheda Police Station in Kota.
The police claim that they police received a complaint against the two accused for inviting people to the Beersheba Church on Canal Road between November 4th and 6th under the guise of a spiritual discourse and converting them, and that some videos and other facts were presented in this regard, and the event was broadcast live on social media.
A case has been registered under Section 299 of the BNS for hurting religious sentiments and under Sections 3 and 5 of the Rajasthan Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion Act, 2025.
The state government had notified a new law against religious conversion on October 29, 2025. It makes religious conversion a non-bailable offence and provides for severe punishments.
Meanwhile a US report on an India-specific issue update claimed that the RSS-backed BJP government has been enacting legislations discriminatory to Muslims and Christians, including anti-conversion laws, cow-slaughter laws and the Citizenship Act, and it linked these measures to the RSS’s declared goal of creating a Hindu Rashtra, while also recalling the 2002 anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat during which Prime Minister Narendra Modi, then an RSS volunteer and serving chief minister, was accused of failing to act decisively.