They Charged Him Under a Law That Did Not Exist Yet. It Takes Effect on Friday.

Pune police filed a chargesheet against Pankaj Devnoor on August 7. They named the statute in it. The Maharashtra Freedom of Religion Act, 2026. Ten years in prison sits at the top of its range.

The Act does not take effect until Friday, August 28. The chargesheet is dated three weeks before the law it cites.

Devnoor is 50. He lives in Manchester and leads a congregation there tied to the Anglican Episcopal Church International. He had flown to Pune for a church anniversary in Guruwar Peth, ten days of services in a hall in the old city. On the seventh day a group of Hindu men walked in and told police it was a conversion operation. One of them, a driver, signed the complaint. He said Devnoor was using Indian musical instruments and Hindu religious words to draw Hindus in.

A court dropped the anti-conversion charges once someone read the calendar. It granted Devnoor interim anticipatory bail and observed that a Christian gathering anyone can walk into does not by itself prove an intent to convert the people who walk in. He cannot leave India without the court's permission. He reports to a police station.

The police did not close the file. They changed which law they were using.