Pastor held for aidingconversion with Chennai fund trail
Investigations revealed that the pastor received funds from Chennai to facilitate conversions and construct prayer halls.
Sitapur SP Ankur Agarwal said the main accused, pastor Vinod Pal Singh, a native of Lakhimpur Kheri, was converting villagers to Christianity. He was arrested along with his wife Jyoti and three local aides — Anant Ram, Shubhkaran and Ramit — all residents of Murawnpurwa.
Police seized religious books and some conversion-related material from Vinod. During the probe, a bank account linked to Vinod was found to have suspicious transactions. He confessed to receiving money from Chennai, which was used to lure people into converting and for setting up prayer halls. Vinod's account has been frozen, and other linked accounts are being traced. Police sources said the phones of the accused are being analysed to identify other individuals involved in the racket.
The arrested individuals have been sent to jail. Further investigation is underway to identify the full extent of the religious conversion network and its sources of funding.
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