Hindu villagers offered inducements in form of money and curing illnesses for religious conversion by Christian missionaries
Supaul, Bihar, India 
28 June, 2026
Case Summary
In the Geedarmari village, Ward 5 of Banailipatti Panchayat, under the Veerpur police station limits in Bihar's Supaul district, Hindu villagers were offered inducements such as money, treatment for illnesses, improved living conditions, free education, and other material benefits for religious conversion by four Christian missionaries from Nepal. According to the complaint filed by Kishundev Ram, the four Christian individuals, a man and three women identified as Ramanand Sah Teli, Mangali (Mangal) Devi Vishwakarma, Urmila Devi Yadav, and Hansa Devi Chaudhary, all residents of Nepal's Saptari district, arrived at his house on 29 June 2026, after crossing the Indo-Nepal border through Bhantabari and travelling via Bhimnagar to the Mahadalit settlement in Banailipatti. They introduced themselves as Christian missionaries and urged him to embrace Christianity, assuring him that his family's illnesses would be cured, that he would receive financial assistance, and that his life would improve after conversion. They also warned him that refusing to convert would result in future difficulties. The missionaries had gathered around 30 to 40 local residents, including men and women, at the residence of Kishundev Ram under the banner of the organisation Satyasang Parmeshwar Pita Ishwari Margdarshan, where they conducted prayer meetings and religious preaching. On learning about the gathering, local villagers reached the spot, objected to the conversion activities, and surrounded the missionaries before informing the police. Officers from Veerpur police station arrived at the scene, detained all those present for questioning, and subsequently registered an FIR against the four Nepali nationals under relevant legal provisions based on the villagers' complaint. During questioning, the four stated that they had been preaching Christianity for the previous three years in border villages of Supaul and neighbouring Araria district and claimed that they had come only for social service and religious preaching, with people attending their meetings voluntarily. Local representatives and members of the Hindu Dharma Raksha Samiti stated that missionaries from Nepal had been targeting poor and uneducated Hindus living in border areas by promising employment, financial assistance, healing from diseases, and solutions to family problems in order to induce religious conversion. Police stated that the matter remained under investigation and that further legal action would be taken based on the findings of the inquiry.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category of - Predatory Proselytisation. Within it, the 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 other 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. 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. This case has been added to the Hinduphobia Tracker because four Christian missionaries from Nepal deliberately targeted Hindu villagers with inducements and promises of material and personal benefits in an attempt to persuade them to abandon their faith and convert to Christianity. Firstly, offering incentives or making false promises, especially when directed at vulnerable individuals in need, shows that these incentives are not acts of kindness or charity. Instead, they are calculated moves to exploit vulnerable Hindus because of religion. By providing inducements or promising healing in exchange for conversion, the accused were effectively blackmailing those who might have been desperate for assistance or hope. Such instances are seen in many cases where members of Christian missionary groups target socially and economically vulnerable Hindus to further their agenda of religious conversions. This form of coercion strips people of their agency and dignity and results in coerced conversions. These are not random or isolated incidents, but rather cases deeply rooted in religious animosity towards Hindu victims. Secondly, the perpetrators also warned the victims that refusing to convert to Christianity would result in future difficulties. Such warnings introduced an element of intimidation into the conversion attempt, going beyond mere religious persuasion. By suggesting that adverse consequences would follow if the victim declined to abandon his faith, the perpetrators sought to create fear and psychological pressure to influence his religious choice. This transformed the interaction from voluntary preaching into a coercive exercise designed to undermine the victim's freedom of conscience. The use of implicit threats alongside promises of financial assistance and healing demonstrates a calculated strategy that combined inducement with intimidation to pressure the Hindu victim into accepting conversion, reinforcing the religiously motivated nature of the offence. Thirdly, the circumstances surrounding the gathering further reinforce the conclusion that the event functioned as a covert conversion exercise rather than a routine prayer meeting. A gathering of local Hindu villagers was organised under the banner of a social organisation, where religious preaching was accompanied by attempts to persuade attendees to embrace Christianity through promises of tangible benefits. Presenting such meetings as ordinary social or prayer gatherings while simultaneously engaging in conversion efforts reflects a deliberate strategy to gain the trust of local communities before introducing inducements designed to influence their religious choices. Such methods reduce transparency and prevent participants from making fully informed decisions regarding the true purpose of the gathering. By conducting such gatherings covertly, the Christian missionaries sought to manipulate vulnerable Hindus, taking advantage of their emotional and social circumstances to push them towards conversion. Fourth, the fact that the accused travelled from Nepal into India's border villages to conduct repeated religious activities over an extended period further proves that the conversion effort was organised and systematic rather than spontaneous or isolated, a targeted action against Hindus as a collectivity. When individuals or groups focus their efforts on converting members of a particular religion, in this case, Hindus, then it demonstrates a fundamental disregard for the Hindu faith. Conversion, especially when not based on personal conviction but rather on external persuasion or pressure, is not simply about sharing a different belief system. It is an attempt to undermine the values, traditions, and identity of the Hindu community. The Christian faith, by its very theological foundations, places a strong emphasis on proselytisation. In pursuit of conversion objectives, Christian evangelists often employ unethical means, ranging from psychological pressure and misinformation to inducements such as money or jobs. These tactics are designed not as acts of charity but as tools to engineer religious change under the guise of social upliftment, particularly among vulnerable and underprivileged communities. This systematic attempt to erode the religious foundation of individuals and replace it with allegiance to another faith reflects deep religious malice and animus against the Hindu identity. Because the core motivation of the act stems from hostility toward the victim’s religion, it meets the threshold of a hate crime. Hence, categorised as a hate crime in the database. Disclaimer: The victim count has been recorded as 41 based on the available reports. This includes the direct complainant, Kishundev Ram, along with the approximately 40 Hindu men and women who were present at the gathering and were subjected to the conversion attempt. Since the exact number of attendees was not officially confirmed, the figure is based on the reported attendance and may be subject to revision if more precise information becomes available.
Victim Details
Total Victim
41
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 1
- Female 0
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 40
Caste
- SC/ST 0
- OBC 0
- General 0
- Unknown 41
Age Group
- Minor 0
- Adult 0
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 41
Case Status
Arrested
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Christian Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
both
Sources 
