Poor Hindu individuals targeted and lured with cash bribes by organised conversion gang in Varanasi to abandon Hindu faith and convert to Christianity
Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India 
25 January, 2026
Case Summary
Poor and financially vulnerable Hindu individuals in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, were targeted by an organised conversion gang. The gang lured them with cash inducements, offering forty thousand rupees to those who agreed to convert to Christianity. Five thousand rupees was paid upfront, with the remaining thirty-five thousand promised upon completion of the conversion. Four accused individuals have been arrested and sent to judicial custody in connection with the case registered under the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Act 2021. The conversion gang operated by identifying financially weak and vulnerable Hindu individuals and approaching them with offers of financial assistance as an inducement to convert to Christianity. The gang offered forty thousand rupees to targeted Hindu individuals, paying five thousand rupees as an advance and promising the remaining thirty-five thousand rupees after the conversion was completed. The case was registered at Jansa police station on the written complaint of Aman Seth, a Hindu man who had been approached by the gang and offered the cash inducement to convert. Earlier in the investigation, Ajay Kumar, aged 40 from Saharanpur, had been arrested and sent to judicial custody, followed by the arrest of Vijay Kumar, aged 42 from Jansa, on January 24, 2026. During the ongoing investigation, two additional accused individuals were identified and subsequently arrested. Jiledar Ram, aged 40, from the Sindhora area, and Jay Prakash, aged 36, from the Jansa area, were arrested, produced before the court, and sent to judicial custody. Police confirmed that the roles of other potential individuals connected to the conversion network were also being investigated to expose the full extent of the organised conversion operation.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
The primary category for this case is "Predatory Proselytisation". The sub-category for this case 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. This case qualified as a religiously motivated hate crime on the basis that an organised conversion gang deliberately identified and targeted poor and financially vulnerable Hindu individuals across multiple villages. They offered them direct cash inducements to abandon their Hindu faith and convert to Christianity, with a part of it paid upfront and the remaining promised upon completion of the conversion. The gang's deliberate targeting of the poorest and most financially desperate members of the Hindu community reflected a calculated strategy that exploited economic desperation as the primary instrument of religious conversion. Poverty creates a state of profound vulnerability in which an individual's capacity to resist manipulation is severely diminished by the pressing weight of financial need. By transforming the act of religious conversion into a commercial transaction, the gang exploited the economic vulnerability of poor Hindu individuals as a direct instrument of predatory proselytisation. The structured nature of the cash inducement reflected a premeditated strategy to create financial dependence, making withdrawal from the conversion process increasingly difficult. The withholding of the larger thirty-five thousand rupees until after the conversion was completed ensured that the full financial reward was contingent upon the permanent abandonment of the Hindu faith, using money as a sustained instrument of coercion rather than a simple one-time offer. The network-based nature of the operation, involving at least four confirmed named accused operating across multiple villages with additional unidentified members under investigation, confirmed that the targeting of vulnerable Hindu individuals was not isolated but part of a deliberate and sustained organised operation. The registration of the case under the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Act 2021 confirmed the authorities' recognition of the organised and predatory nature of the conversion operation. Given that this case met the parameters of a religiously motivated hate crime, it was added to the hate crime database of the tracker.
Victim Details
Total Victim
1
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 1
- Female 0
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 0
Caste
- SC/ST 0
- OBC 0
- General 0
- Unknown 1
Age Group
- Minor 0
- Adult 1
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Arrested
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Christian Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
male
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