GUWAHATI, India — Indian police are deporting three Swedish citizens who violated their visas by trying to convert people to Christianity in India’s remote northeast region, officials said Thursday.

The three were picked up Wednesday in the Naharkatiya tea garden area in Assam state and fined $500 each for violating the terms of their tourist visas, said G.P. Singh, an Assam state police officer.

They were identified as Marcus Bloom, Hanna Bloom and Susanna Hakansson and sent to New Delhi on Thursday, Singh said.

He said they will spend Thursday night at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport and fly to Stockholm on Friday.

Media reports said they attended a program organized by the United Churches Fellowship and Bless Assam Mission Network and delivered sermons in an attempt to convert local people to Christianity.