Poor Hindus being lured to convert to Christianity through inducements

Case ID : 152df31 | Location : Jalalabad, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Thu, 23 January, 2025
Case ID : 152df31
location Jalalabad, Uttar Pradesh, India
date 23 January, 2025
Poor Hindus being lured to convert to Christianity through inducements
Predatory Proselytisation
Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion
Conversion/ attempts to convert by inducement

Case Summary

In Khalilabad, Uttar Pradesh, Hindu groups belonging to SC, ST, and OBC were being converted to Christianity by members of a gang of four people. In return for converting people, they were given economic and physical benefits. This gang also lured illiterate poor women and stole their jewellery. Kotwali in-charge Satish Kumar Singh said that Jose Pullul Velil and his wife Elammajos, residents of Thippanni village of Thiruvalla police station of Pantanam Tita district of Kerala province, Ajore of Bhagthi Tola Beltari of Bakhira police station area and Rambaran, resident of Pachava village of Dudhara police station area are an organised gang. They were creating enmity and hatred among other religions by luring poor men and women of Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, and Other Backward Classes and converting them to other religions for their own economic, material, and physical benefits. They molested and lured illiterate women and earned money by stealing their jewellery. A police case was filed against these members under the Gangster Act in the Khalilabad police station.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the prime category of Predatory proselytisation. Under this, the first sub-category selected is- Conversion/ attempts to convert by inducement. Predatory Proselytisation is not just limited to threat, harassment, force and violence, but it also has contours of stealth. In several cases, the Hindu victim is exploited to convert, with non-Hindus taking advantage of their poverty. In such cases, the Hindu victim who is suffering financially is offered monetary benefits, including lucrative offers for jobs, health treatment, education, etc, to induce the victim into changing his/her religion. In such cases, the religious identity of the victim and the aim to disenfranchise him from his faith form the heart of the crime. Also, taking advantage of and exploiting an individual’s economic vulnerabilities is widely acknowledged as exploitation, forms of which are often penalised by law. Such cases therefore are considered religiously motivated hate crimes since the victim’s religious identity forms the very heart of the crime itself. The second sub-category selected here is- Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion. Harassment covers a wide range of behaviours of an offensive nature. It is commonly understood as behaviour that demeans, humiliates, and intimidates a person, including threats and coercion. Harassment and threats, in this case, find their root on discriminatory grounds which has the effect of nullifying a person’s rights or infringing upon his freedom to exercise his right specifically owing to the victim’s religious identity. Verbal and physical threats and psychological or physical harassment are often used against Hindu victims because they choose to practice their professed religion. Religious harassment also includes forced and involuntary conversions by harassment, threats or coercion. Coercion includes intimidatory tactics like force-feeding a Hindu victim beef to convert to another religion, forceful circumcision etc. In several cases documented, non-Hindu perpetrators or those who harbour specific animosity towards Hinduism, harass victims simply based on their religious identity. Such cases often also include harassment to ensure the Hindu victim abandons his/her professed religion and adopts the religion of the perpetrator. In this subcategory, we would only include cases where the victim was harassed, threatened or coerced to convert. Cases where attempts were made to convert but the victim resisted would be documented in another sub-category. Such cases where Hindu victims are harassed to convert to the perpetrator’s religion are rooted in animosity towards the victim’s religious identity and are therefore documented as religiously motivated hate crimes. Here, the accused gang lured individuals from marginalized Hindu communities, such as Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), and Other Backward Classes (OBC), by offering material, economic, and physical benefits. These inducements were used to manipulate vulnerable individuals into abandoning their faith, highlighting the exploitative and targeted nature of the conversion attempts. Further, the evangelists also created an atmosphere of intimidation to force the poor Hindus to accede to their conversion demands. Reports indicate that illiterate and poor women were specifically targeted, lured with false promises, and subjected to harassment, including the theft of their jewellery and molestation. Such actions not only violated their dignity but were also a direct affront to their religious identity, pressuring them to convert under duress. This constitutes a religiously motivated hate crime as such actions are driven by intolerance towards the victim's religious identity and aim to coerce them into abandoning their faith, often accompanied by threats, violence, or other forms of intimidation.

Case Status Background
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Case Status


Arrested

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Perpetrators Details

Perpetrators


Christian Extremists

Perpetrators Range


From 2 To 5

Perpetrators Gender


both

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