A Hindu nationalist on Tuesday filed a complaint against an injured American missionary, apparently to prevent him from leaving for home.
K. Sugathan, a local leader of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, a religious affiliate of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's Bharatiya Janata Party, claimed that Bishop Joseph William Cooper had denigrated Hindus in his sermons in southern India and that he should be prosecuted.
A magistrate's court in Trivandrum, the capital of southern Kerala state, was to decide on Wednesday whether Cooper would be charged with hurting the sentiments of India's majority Hindus. If convicted, he could be jailed for up to three years.
The texts of the sermons referred to by Sugathan were not immediately available.
On Monday, police ordered Cooper, 67, of New Castle, Pennsylvania, to leave India within a week for violating his visa status. He had traveled to India on a visitor's visa, which meant he was not allowed to preach at churches, police said.
Cooper was discharged from a hospital in Trivandrum on Monday after undergoing surgery for a deep cut on his right hand. He wasn't immediately available for comment.
Suspected Hindu nationalists used bamboo sticks, swords and crowbars to attack Cooper and seven others last week after they left a church gathering on the outskirts of Trivandrum.
Police arrested four members of a hard-line Hindu group, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, or National Volunteer Corps, on charges of attacking Cooper.
Hindu hard-liners object to the activities of Christian missionaries and the spread of what they see as Western influence in India.
They have been increasingly attacking Christians since the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in 1999, accusing missionaries of converting poor Hindus by offering money. Christian organizations deny the charge.
On Jan. 23, 1999, Australian missionary Graham Stewart Staines and his two young sons were burned to death by a mob while they were sleeping in their vehicle outside a church in eastern Orissa state.