Chhattisgarh's New Religion Law Took Effect on Tuesday. On Friday the Police Came for the Man Who Speaks for the Christians.
The gazette notice landed on August 4. Three days later police took the president of the Chhattisgarh Christian Forum from his home in Raipur. Not under the new conversion law. Over a comment on Facebook.
The notice went into the state gazette on August 4. That is the small administrative act that turns a bill into a law you can be arrested under, and it is how the Chhattisgarh Freedom of Religion Bill, 2026, passed by the State Assembly back in March, finally became operational.
Three days later, on Friday, August 7, police came to a house in Raipur and took Arun Pannalal. He is 75 years old. He is the president of the Chhattisgarh Christian Forum, which in practice has meant that for years he was the man you called when a church in that state was burned or a pastor was beaten and you wanted to know whether it was true.
He was not arrested under the new religion law. He was arrested over a comment on Facebook.
That night, while he was in custody, members of the Bajrang Dal gathered outside his house. On Saturday a magistrate ordered him held. He has been in judicial custody since. His son says his father never wrote the comment at all.
