Hindu family targeted for Christian conversion through coercion, denigration of Hindu deities, and false promises of 'curing diseases'
Raipur, Chhattisgarh, India 
14 March, 2026
Case Summary
In Raipur's Kharora police station area, a Hindu family from the tribal community faced targeted efforts for forced Christian conversion. The family endured pressure to convert through coercion and was lured with false promises of curing diseases. The perpetrator also denigrated Hindu deities to advance the religious conversion of these Hindu victims. According to media reports, this incident occurred on 15 March 2026. The conversion attempt was carried out by a Christian man named Anup Shende, who lured the tribal Hindu family into converting to Christianity by promising them healing and offering prayers. Furthermore, he used abusive language against Hindu deities. Following a complaint from the head of the family, the police arrested the accused. Rohit Uike, a resident of Kathia No. 1 village in the Kharora police station area, filed a complaint with the police station. He stated that Anup Shende came to his house at 10 a.m. on 15 March and, after conducting a prayer, pressured his family to convert to Christianity. Rohit Uike stated that even before this, Anup had lured villagers to pray with the promise of healing their illnesses and forced them to convert to Christianity by using abusive language against Hindu deities. Due to this, Rohit's aunt, Sukhwantin Bai Uike, also converted to Christianity and removed all images of Hindu deities from her home. Following Rohit's complaint, the police team swung into action and arrested the accused, Anup Shende, for attempting forced conversion. With this, the police initiated further legal action.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case is being added to the tracker under the primary category- Predatory Proselytisation. The subcategory selected is- Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination. The tertiary categories selected are- Pattern of targeting Hindus, Family claims grooming. Religious brainwashing essentially means the often subtle and forcible indoctrination to induce someone to give up their religious beliefs to accept contrasting regimented ideas. Religious grooming or brainwashing also involves propaganda and manipulation. It involves the systematic effort, driven by religious malice and indoctrination, to persuade “non-believers’ to accept allegiance, command, or doctrine to and of a contrasting faith. Cases of such grooming or brainwashing are far more nuanced than direct threats, coercion, inducement and violence. In such cases, it is often seen that there is repeated, subtle and continual manipulation of the victim to induce disaffection towards their own faith and acceptance of the contrasting faith of the perpetrator. While subtle indoctrination is widely acknowledged as predatory, an element which is often understated in such conversions or the attempts of such conversion is the role of loyalty and trust which might develop between the perpetrator and the victim. Fiduciary relationships are often abused to affect such religious conversion. For example, an educator transmitting religious doctrine of a competing faith to a Hindu student. The Hindu student is likely to accept what the teacher is transmitting owing to existence of the fiduciary relationship. The exploitation of the fiduciary relationship to religiously indoctrinate victims would also be included in this category. Since the underlying animosity towards the victim’s faith forms the basis of predatory proselytization, such cases are considered religiously motivated hate crimes. The other subcategory 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 other subcategory selected 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. 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. The other subcategory selected is- Attempting to convert/converting by denigrating Hinduism. In several cases, Hindus are converted or an attempt is made to convert Hindus by denigrating their faith, Hinduism. In such cases, the Hindus associate with the non-Hindu perpetrators often by choice and then, the attempt to convert them by insulting their faith, showing the faith down etc begins. An example of this would be a non-Hindu gathering where the Hindus are attending the gathering of their own free will. However, once they attend the gathering, there is an explicit attempt to convert them by abusing their faith and hailing the faith of the perpetrator. The denigration of the Hindu faith is often based on misrepresentation of the Hindu faith, its doctrine and scriptures and insult to espoused traditions if not blatant lies about Hindu beliefs and ways. Such conversions or attempts at conversions are driven by animosity towards the Hindu faith and are therefore documented as religiously motivated hate crimes. This case is a clear instance of a religiously motivated crime, as the Christian perpetrator targeted an entire Hindu family and even other tribal villagers for forced conversion through pressure, promises of curing diseases, and denigration of Hindu deities, making it overall an act motivated by anti-Hindu hate. Firstly, the Hindu family in this case was lured to convert to Christianity through promises of curing diseases, which served as both deceitful inducements and calculated manipulation explicitly targeting their religious identity as Hindus. These predatory tactics exploited the family's vulnerability, preying on their health struggles and desperation for relief, all to enforce Christian conversion upon them. Such acts reveal the perpetrator's intent to manipulate and erode Hindu faith by weaponising false hopes of healing, showcasing a deep-seated religious animosity that views Hindus as ripe for exploitation due to their beliefs. By dangling illusory cures as bait, the Christian perpetrator demonstrated contempt for Hindu autonomy and dignity, turning a moment of human suffering into a tool for religious conquest, which unequivocally amounts to a hate crime rooted in animus against Hindus. Secondly, the perpetrator further pressured the Hindu family to convert by applying overt force and coercion, stripping them of any genuine choice in the matter and trampling their religious autonomy in the process. This aggressive method of conversion blatantly violated the victims' fundamental rights to freedom of belief and practice, reducing a deeply personal spiritual identity to something that could be bullied away. When conversion occurs through external persuasion, force, or coercion, it always constitutes a religiously motivated hate crime, as it seeks to completely dismantle the Hindu victim's faith and replace it with another, driven by the perpetrator's profound animosity towards the Hindu community. Rohit Uike and his family endured this violation not as isolated individuals, but as Hindus whose sacred traditions were under siege, leaving them feeling powerless and betrayed in their own home. Thirdly, the perpetrator denigrated Hindu deities with abusive language as a deliberate tactic to lure Hindus into conversion, striking at the very heart of what makes Hinduism a living faith for millions who revere their gods with profound devotion and see them as embodiments of divine protection, wisdom, and grace. For Hindus, deities like those invoked in daily worship are not mere symbols but cherished guardians of their cultural and spiritual world, treated with utmost sanctity and love. By abusing these sacred figures, the perpetrator asserted Christianity's supposed supremacy over Hinduism, humiliating Hindu victims for their faith identity and psychologically breaking them down to pave the way for forced conversion. This calculated desecration exposed the perpetrator's deep-seated religious animosity, transforming reverence into ridicule to dominate and diminish Hindus, marking it as a clear instance of a hate crime fuelled by interfaith contempt. The denigration proved so severe and insidious that Rohit's aunt, Sukhwantin Bai Uike, felt compelled to remove all images of Hindu deities from her home after succumbing to the pressure, illustrating the real, everyday devastation these tactics inflict on ordinary Hindu lives. This act humiliated her about her own faith, planted seeds of insecurity and shame, and portrayed Hinduism as inferior to Christianity, ultimately stripping away visible markers of her Hindu identity. Such techniques slowly eliminate Hindu presence from the victims' daily existence, eroding their spiritual anchors piece by piece until their faith vanishes entirely. By orchestrating this profound personal loss through abuse and manipulation, the perpetrator committed a religiously motivated hate crime that scarred real Hindus, leaving them alienated from their roots. Rohit Uike revealed that the perpetrator targeted not only his family but the entire Hindu community in the village for conversion, employing the same ruthless arsenal of false promises to cure diseases, coercive prayers, and abusive denigration of deities. This systematic campaign against the village Hindus formed a chilling pattern of forced Christian proselytisation, where predatory methods preyed on collective vulnerabilities to dismantle Hindu faith on a communal scale and irreversibly alter the area's religious demographics. By scaling up these attacks from one household to an entire community, the perpetrator pursued a broader agenda of religious erasure, intimidating villagers into submission and fostering an environment where Hindus felt under existential threat. This predatory expansion showcased unrelenting animosity towards Hindus as a group, making it a stark, undeniable case of a religiously motivated hate crime designed to uproot and replace Hinduism through calculated predation. These instances of targeted Christian proselytisation activities stem from inherent hostility towards the victims' professed faith since Abrahamic faiths believe that any non-adherent to their faith is subject to being dehumanised till they convert, making it a religiously motivated crime against Hindus. Therefore, this case is being added to the hate crime database of the Hinduphobia Tracker. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records the victim count as two in this case, referring to Sukhwantin Bai Uike and Rohit Uike. Although the incident targeted Rohit Uike's entire family for conversion, along with other Hindu villagers, no specific total number of victims was provided. Hence, a conservative estimate of two victims, Sukhwantin Bai Uike and Rohit Uike, has been selected for documentation purposes.
Victim Details
Total Victim
2
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 1
- Female 1
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 0
Caste
- SC/ST 2
- OBC 0
- General 0
- Unknown 0
Age Group
- Minor 0
- Adult 2
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Arrested
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Christian Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
