BHOPAL: Police arrested two women on Easter Sunday for allegedly violating state laws on preaching Christianity, police said.
"The women were distributing pamphlets telling people how they may overcome their problems by following the Bible," said D Srinivas Rao, police chief of Jabalpur district in Madhya Pradesh.
"Several other objectionable pamphlets have also been seized from their possession."
The official said that under a state law anyone planning to preach religion must get permission first from authorities.
"The offenders had not sought any permission," Rao said.
The arrests are the latest in a series of similar moves by police in the state, where the Bharatiya Janata Party has been in power for more than two years.
Last year the Madhya Pradesh government set up a panel to look into reports of what right-wing parties call "forced conversions".
The panel said in its report that in another state district, the Christian population had gone up by 80 percent in two decades.
A BJP government in Rajasthan this month approved a law aimed at checking religious conversions, and the party has advocated a similar law nationwide.
