New Delhi: In a late development, the Delhi high court granted the Family of Lord Jesus Church (FOLJ) a stay against NDMC’s revocation of permission to its event, which was initially slated to take place at the Talkatora Stadium on August 25 and 26. The permission was cancelled by the civic body after AAP rebel Kapil Mishra had lodged a complaint with it as well as the Delhi Police.

The AAP and Delhi’s deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia also landed in trouble on Friday as the controversial event to be organised by the Christian organisation, which declares religious conversion as its agenda on its website, was not just cancelled, but a criminal complaint was lodged against Sisodia and the FOLJ by Mishra. 

Sisodia was to be the chief guest at the event.

Meanwhile, Mishra told MyNation that he would protest against the programme in front of the stadium as Delhi Police would be videographing it.

The event was initially slated to be organised by the Family of Lord Jesus Church (FOLJ) on August 25 and 26 and Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia was to be the chief guest.

Also read: Guess who is chief guest at event of Christian body that openly converts and ‘harvests souls’

After complaining to the NDMC over the illegal nature of the programme on Thursday, the civic body denied permission to the event.

Mishra also lodged a criminal complaint against the event on Friday with DCP, New Delhi district.

Mishra, in a series of tweets, announced that the permission to the “fraud event” was cancelled. He also thanked MyNation. “Thanks to MyNation… this would not have been possible without you,” he wrote in a tweet.

Meanwhile, in the criminal complaint lodged with the police, Mishra alleged that the organisers had indulged in fraud by making false claims about miracles that cured incurable diseases and thus propagated religious conversion. He has also named Sisodia in the complaint for “colluding” with the organisers and supporting the fraud by accepting to appear as the chief guest in their event. Mishra has called for appropriate action against Sisodia too.

Mishra had on Thursday moved NDMC chairperson Naresh Kumar and made a formal complaint asking for revocation of permission for the programme organised by Family of Lord Jesus Church (FOLJ). Mishra lodged a similar complaint with the Delhi police too.

“The event is being organised to encourage religious conversion and religious superstition. The website of the organisers, Family of Lord Jesus Church, itself declares that its objective is to ‘harvest one million souls every year’ and the objective of this event is the same. It is illegal to give permission for organising such an event in the stadium,” Mishra said in the complaint.

Targeting Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal over Sisodia’s participation, Mishra asked in a tweet: “Does Kejriwal want to convert Hindus into Christians?”

Mishra told MyNation that he would start a protest campaign against the programme if permission was not cancelled. “If permission is revoked well and good, otherwise I will lead a silent protest outside the stadium,” he said.

The AAP, however, said it had no knowledge of the event or Sisodia’s participation. “Mujhe nahin pata. Is bare mein mujhe koi jaankari nahin hai (I don’t know about this. I have no knowledge about this),” said Nagendra Sharma, advisor to Delhi’s CM.

FOLJ functionary Karan Anand rubbished Mishra’s allegations. “This is an event only for Christians, therefore who will we convert? Manish Sisodia gave us last-minute confirmation of his presence and that too is for only around 15 minutes. Mishra is only creating ruckus,” he said.

Meanwhile, the leader of the FOLJ Church Apostle PS Rambabu is also the president of New Creation Ministries and Senior Pastor of Holy Spirit Generation Church, Bangalore, Karnataka. The website of New Creation Ministries declares: “New Creation Ministries (NCM) is headed by Evangelist PS Rambabu and Evangelist Ankit Rambabu. The ministry has been taking the Good News of our Lord Jesus Christ to every corner of the world. NCM has a unfallable [sic] vision of ‘Reaching the un-reached’ and also to harvest ‘one million souls’ every year by conducting large Crusades and Gospel gatherings.”

Also, FOLJ website claims several cases in which the ailing were cured of not just irreversible accident injuries, but also cancer and polio after converting to Christianity.

Its Facebook page is also full of such instances. It contains several videos in which gatherings are being addressed by Hindus who apparently did not find the truth in their religion. They are describing Hinduism as “a collection of unhistorical tales and stories” and why they converted to Christianity, “the real deal”.