Police in Maharashtra’s Palghar district have registered a case against 22 women over allegations that they attempted to persuade a young man to convert to Christianity and made remarks intended to outrage his religious feelings.
The case stems from an incident at Wakadpada village in Mokhada taluka on August 21, when a group of women allegedly visited the home of an 18-year-old student and offered him Christian religious literature. Police said an investigation is under way and no arrests had been made as of August 25.
The first information report has been registered under Sections 299 and 3 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. Section 299 deals with deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage the religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs, while Section 3 covers acts carried out by several persons in furtherance of a common intention.
Two women have emerged as key figures in the inquiry. They were identified as Satyavati Balkrishna Kunche, 46, a resident of Ulhasnagar in neighbouring Thane district, and Kusum Shivram Kambdi, a resident of the area where the incident was reported.
The complainant told police that a group of women arrived at his home on Friday afternoon. Kunche allegedly offered him religious books, including a copy of the New Testament, free of charge. The complaint alleges that she told him reading the books could cure illnesses and protect him from disease.
When the student declined to accept the literature, Kunche allegedly criticised Hindu deities and religious practices and asked him to stop worshipping them. She is also accused of encouraging him to adopt Christianity. The allegations have not been tested in court, and police are examining the circumstances surrounding the encounter as well as the individual roles of those named in the FIR.
The student subsequently alerted residents of the village. Local people, including a resident identified as Milind Zole, confronted and stopped the group before informing the authorities.
Preliminary inquiries indicate that some of the women had travelled from Hyderabad and reached the Palghar area through contacts involving Kambdi. Investigators are seeking to establish how the group was organised, why Wakadpada was selected for the visit and whether similar activities had been conducted elsewhere.
Assistant Police Inspector Ajit Sable of Mokhada police station is among the officers handling the case. Police are expected to record statements from the complainant, villagers who witnessed the confrontation and the women named in the complaint. Investigators may also examine travel arrangements, communications and the distribution of religious material as they seek to determine whether the allegations meet the legal threshold required under the sections invoked.
The case centres on the distinction between the constitutionally protected right to propagate religion and conduct that may amount to coercion, inducement or deliberate insult to another faith. Article 25 of the Constitution protects freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practise and propagate religion, subject to public order, morality, health and other constitutional provisions.
Courts have previously drawn a distinction between the right to communicate or spread religious beliefs and any claimed right to convert another person through force, fraud or improper inducement. Allegations involving conversion therefore often turn on the specific conduct, words and circumstances involved rather than the mere distribution of religious literature or discussion of faith.
Maharashtra does not have a statewide anti-conversion law comparable to legislation enforced in several other states. The Palghar investigation is consequently proceeding under provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita concerning alleged insults to religious beliefs and common intention rather than under a dedicated state law prohibiting unlawful religious conversion.
