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The Supreme Court on Friday granted protection from arrest to the Vice Chancellor and the Director of a private agriculture university at UP's Prayagraj in connection with a mass religious conversion case.
Senior lawyer Siddharth Dave, representing the officials of the deemed university, submitted before a bench headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud that his clients were facing the imminent danger of getting arrested in the case, though they were not named accused in the FIR. The allegations are that close to 100 Hindus were asked to assemble at the Evangelical Church of India at Hariharganj in Fatehpur for the purpose of converting them to Christianity. Earlier in the day, Dave had mentioned the case and sought urgent hearing in the matter. He submitted that Allahabad High Court has refused to grant them the relief of bail in the case to VC Rajendra Bihari Lal and Director Vinod Bihari Lal of Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences, formerly the Allahabad Agricultural Institute. The institute is a government-aided agricultural university at Prayagraj. The bench, also comprising Justices P S Narasimha and J B Pardiwala, heard the plea around 4 p.m. and granted the relief to the petitioners. Dave cited that police have raided the university and non-bailable warrants have been issued. He further submitted that his client is the VC and the second one is director and added that in Fatehpur, some FIR is lodged that some religious conversion is going on. "I am in Allahabad. I am not even named in the FIR," he said, adding that they have been asked to join the investigation after eight months of lodging the FIR. The top court also sought response of the Uttar Pradesh government in the case. "Pending further orders, there shall be a stay on the arrest of the petitioners," the bench ordered. The FIR was lodged in April last year. --IANS ss/vd ( 333 Words) 2023-03-03-22:38:03 (IANS)
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