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A British Pastor Was Charged Under a Law That Didn't Exist Yet

Pankaj Devnoor flew to Pune for his church's anniversary and ended up under police watch. The law he was charged with breaking doesn't take legal effect until today.

August 28, 2026 · 3 min read · Kingdom Kutz Media Newsroom

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Pankaj Devnoor flew from Manchester to Pune this month for something ordinary. His church, Pavitranam Devalaya, was marking 141 years, and he wanted to be there for the celebration. He didn't fly home on schedule. Instead he has spent three weeks under police watch, barred from leaving India, reporting to a station three times a week while lawyers argue over a law that, as of today, has only just become real.

What Happened at the Anniversary Service

On August 7, a group of Hindu men led by a local complainant walked into the church's ten-day anniversary celebration and accused organizers of using the gathering to convert Hindus to Christianity. There was preaching. There was prayer and music. There was, according to the court that later reviewed the case, no evidence the event was staged to convert anyone. Police arrested Devnoor anyway and charged him under Maharashtra's new Freedom of Religion Act, a law written to criminalize conversion by force, fraud, or inducement, as International Christian Concern reported.

A Law That Wasn't Law Yet

Here is the detail that turned a local dispute into international news. Maharashtra's legislature passed the Freedom of Religion Act on July 31 and it received presidential assent soon after. But the law itself doesn't take legal effect until August 28, three full weeks after police used it to charge a foreign visitor with a crime. Human rights lawyer Colin Gonsalves put it bluntly: "If the law has not come into force, there is no offence. Simple as that." Once officials realized the timeline didn't work, they didn't drop the case. They pivoted, floating immigration violations as a backup charge to keep Devnoor tied to the country.

Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.Matthew 5:10-11 (KJV)

A Family Waiting Three Time Zones Away

Devnoor is 50, a longtime minister with the Anglican Episcopal Church International who has spent years visiting hospital patients through the UK's National Health Service alongside his church work. None of that mattered once police took his phone. His daughter Manali told reporters her family had already read about how religious minorities are treated in India, which made the silence after his arrest worse. "Our priority is making sure he comes back home safe," she said. His son opened a fundraising campaign to cover legal costs, and the UK Foreign Office confirmed it is in contact with Devnoor and local authorities.

Stories like this rarely feel dramatic while they're happening. They feel like paperwork, phone calls, and waiting rooms, which is exactly why they matter. Kingdom Kutz Media's The Real Reason Why God Allows Suffering spends a full chapter on the truth Devnoor's family is living through right now, that some suffering traces back to spiritual warfare, an enemy actively working against people who carry the gospel into hostile places. The video doesn't hand out a tidy explanation for why a grandfather's passport gets held over a church anniversary. It points to something closer to what his own family is doing this week, sitting in the tension and trusting God's redemptive purpose while the outcome is still unknown.

What Happens Next

Christians make up roughly two to three percent of India's population, and cases like Devnoor's are becoming more common as several states pass or tighten anti-conversion laws. Open Doors has documented dozens of disrupted church gatherings across India over the past year alone. Devnoor's next hearing will test whether a law can be used to punish someone for something it hadn't yet made illegal, and whether a court willing to say so out loud can make that finding stick against a police department already reaching for a different charge.

Key Takeaways

• Pankaj Devnoor, a 50-year-old British pastor, was arrested August 7 after Hindu nationalists disrupted his church's anniversary celebration in Pune, India.
• Police charged him under Maharashtra's Freedom of Religion Act, a law that doesn't take legal effect until August 28, three weeks after the charges were filed.
• A local court found no evidence the gathering was organized to convert anyone, and Devnoor was granted interim bail with strict reporting conditions.
• He remains barred from leaving India while police explore immigration charges as a backup after the anti-conversion charge fell apart.
• His family has launched a legal fund, and the UK Foreign Office says it is monitoring the case.
• The case comes amid a wider rise in anti-conversion enforcement and disrupted Christian gatherings across several Indian states.

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