Hindu woman pressured to convert to Christianity through inducements in Madhya Pradesh’s Satna; Christian family similarly targeted several other Hindus for conversion

Case ID : 30aad18 | Location : Satna, Madhya Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Tue, 11 October, 2022

Case ID : 30aad18

Satna, Madhya Pradesh, India

11 October, 2022

Hindu woman pressured to convert to Christianity through inducements in Madhya Pradesh’s Satna; Christian family similarly targeted several other Hindus for conversion

Predatory Proselytisation

Conversion/ attempts to convert by inducement

Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion

Case Summary

In Dhawari, Satna, Madhya Pradesh, a Hindu woman, Asha Chaudhary, was pressured to convert to Christianity by five members of a Christian family. The accused, comprising a couple, their two sons and a daughter, were arrested for offering her financial inducements and promising to resolve her problems in exchange for conversion. The perpetrators had also targeted several other Hindus, offering them money and employment and intimidating them to pressure them into converting to Christianity. According to media reports, Asha, a resident of Dhawari, was facing financial difficulties as her husband had been suffering from ill health for a prolonged period. Around four years earlier, in 2022, she came into contact with the Christian perpetrators, Ramnaresh Chaudhary and his family, who had converted to Christianity. The family promised her financial assistance and relief from her problems in exchange for converting to Christianity. Despite her refusal to convert, the perpetrators continued to pressure her to embrace Christianity. Following this, Asha approached Bajrang Dal members with a complaint. The organisation subsequently received further complaints that conversion activities were taking place at the accused’s house, where other Hindus were being offered money and employment and intimidated and pressured to change their religion. The conversion activities came to light after workers from the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Bajrang Dal received information about activities taking place at the perpetrators’ house near Chandmari Road in Dhawari. The Hindu organisation workers reached the location, raised slogans and protested before informing the police. Upon arriving at the house, the police found approximately 15 people inside and detained several individuals during the initial investigation. Asha subsequently refused to convert and approached the police to lodge a complaint. The City Kotwali police registered a case against the five accused under Sections 296(a), 351(3) and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, as well as Sections 3 and 5 of the Madhya Pradesh Religious Freedom Act. The police seized religious materials from the house, and all five accused were arrested and sent to jail. The police stated that the investigation was ongoing and that further action would be taken based on the findings. City Superintendent of Police Manish Tripathi said the police were on alert regarding such activities and would act on any information received. He also referred to questioning local residents and preparing lists of tenants as part of the preventive measures being considered.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case is being added to the tracker under the primary category: Predatory Proselytisation. The 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. This case represents a clear example of a religiously driven hate crime, as a Hindu woman was pressured to abandon her faith and convert to Christianity through financial inducements, while other Hindus were also subjected to pressure and intimidation to convert. The exploitation of religious and socio-economic vulnerabilities to secure conversions demonstrates a disregard for the religious autonomy of Hindus and their right to practise their faith without coercion. The use of financial inducements to pressure a Hindu woman into abandoning her faith exposes the predatory nature of the conversion attempt. Her financial difficulties and her husband’s prolonged illness were exploited to present conversion as a means of securing relief from her circumstances. Rather than being an act of charity, the offer of financial assistance was conditional on her abandoning Hinduism, turning her vulnerability into a means of influencing her religious choices. Such conditional inducements amount to emotional exploitation, particularly when directed at individuals facing financial distress and desperate for assistance. Religious conversion can only be considered voluntary when it is based on free and informed consent, without coercion or undue pressure. By exploiting the victim’s socio-economic vulnerability to secure her conversion, the perpetrators undermined her agency and dignity and disregarded her right to retain her Hindu identity. The attempt to use financial hardship as leverage to make her abandon her faith demonstrates the predatory nature of the conversion effort and its religiously targeted character. Rather than respecting Hinduism as a faith the victim had the right to practise freely, the perpetrators sought to use her circumstances to facilitate her departure from it. This conduct, particularly when considered alongside the pressure on other Hindus to convert, supports the classification of the incident as a religiously driven hate crime. The repeated pressure on the Hindu woman to convert further reinforces the religiously targeted nature of the incident. Persistently attempting to make a Hindu abandon her faith, despite the deeply personal nature of religious belief, demonstrates a disregard for her freedom of conscience. Such conduct goes beyond a voluntary effort to share religious beliefs when it involves sustained pressure intended to override an individual’s religious choice. The targeting of a Hindu woman for conversion through repeated attempts to influence her decision reflects an unwillingness to respect her right to retain her religious identity and practise Hinduism freely. Such acts are rooted in hostility towards Hinduism, making this incident an example of a religiously motivated crime. The pressure and intimidation directed at other Hindus further indicate that the conversion activities extended beyond an individual case. Using financial inducements, intimidation and coercive pressure to make Hindus abandon their faith undermines their freedom of conscience and religious autonomy. When individuals are targeted on account of their religious identity and subjected to coercive methods intended to secure their departure from that faith, the conduct takes on a distinctly religious dimension. Such methods reflect a disregard for the right of Hindus to continue practising their religion without fear, pressure or exploitation. The targeting of multiple Hindus through these tactics reinforces the religious hostility underlying the incident. The incident also highlights a growing pattern in organised conversion networks, where individuals who have embraced Christianity continue to retain their Hindu names while practising Christianity. This allows these crypto Christians to seamlessly integrate into Hindu communities, gain the confidence of unsuspecting families, and carry out conversion activities without immediately revealing their religious identity. In this case too, the Christian family operated under the Hindu names, illustrating how the continued use of a Hindu identity can facilitate access to communities and Hindu individuals that might otherwise be wary of conversion efforts. These instances of targeted proselytisation activities stem from inherent hostility towards the victim's 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 incident date based on when the victim’s ordeal began, rather than when the incident was reported by the media. However, in this case, media reports have not specified the exact date on which the victim’s ordeal began, stating only that it started around four years ago, in 2022. As the incident was reported on 12 October 2026, an indicative date of 12 October 2022 has been selected based on the available information. This indicative date has been recorded for documentation purposes only. Although multiple Hindu victims were pressured and intimidated into converting to Christianity in this case, the exact number of victims has not been specified in media reports. Accordingly, the victim count has been recorded as one, referring to Asha Chaudhary, for documentation purposes only.