Four people have received fines for practising Christianity from a village council in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.

One of the men, Shankar Singh, told UCA News that they were fined 5,000 rupees (US$75) each.

The arrests followed accusations by a Hindu group that the people at the gathering were attempting to convert to Christianity.

The state, run by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, has an anti-conversion law that criminalises conversion if done without the permission of government authorities.

A Christian advocacy group recently said that attacks on Christians were reported on an almost daily basis in 2015.