Hindu residents, including minors, lured with inducements to convert to Christianity and made to participate in Christian prayers
Ballia, Uttar Pradesh, India 
31 October, 2026
Case Summary
In Teduwa village, under the Ubhaon police station area of Ballia, Uttar Pradesh, Hindu residents, including minors, were targeted for religious conversion by a Christian man. They were offered various inducements and encouraged to embrace Christianity through prayer gatherings dedicated to Jesus Christ. According to media reports, on 1 November 2026, a Hindu man named Praveen Kumar Singh, a resident of Patnari village, was passing near Teduwa village when he heard loud singing and music coming from a nearby location. Upon approaching the place, he found several Hindu women, men and children gathered inside a room at the house of a Christian man named Ram Ashish, son of the late Dharmdev and a resident of Teduwa village. Those present were made to participate in prayers dedicated to Jesus Christ. Following this discovery, Praveen Kumar Singh informed the local police and submitted a written complaint to the Station House Officer (SHO) of Ubhaon police station. In his complaint, he stated that Ram Ashish was offering various inducements to Hindu men and women to persuade them to convert to Christianity. He further stated that Hindus were being targeted for religious conversion under the guise of devotional singing and prayers. He demanded that the police take legal action against the accused. Acting on the complaint, Ubhaon police reached the location and initiated an investigation. The police subsequently arrested Ram Ashish, the accused in the case. At the time of writing this report, Inspector-in-Charge Anil Upadhyay confirmed the arrest and stated that the investigation was ongoing. The police were also examining the complaint, the role of other individuals present at the gathering and the possible involvement of additional persons in the conversion activities.
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: Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination. The tertiary category selected is: Conversion of minor. 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. This incident was a clear example of a religiously driven hate crime, as a Christian man specifically targeted Hindu residents, including minors, with inducements to persuade them to abandon their faith and convert to Christianity. The victims were also made to participate in prayers dedicated to Jesus Christ as part of these conversion efforts. The deliberate targeting of Hindus through inducements and Christian religious activities demonstrated an attempt to influence members of a particular religious community to relinquish their existing religious identity. Such targeted conversion efforts reflected a disregard for the faith, traditions and religious identity of the Hindu community. Rather than being a matter of individuals independently exploring another faith, the activities involved the use of inducements and religious persuasion to influence Hindu residents to embrace Christianity, thereby undermining their religious autonomy. Offering inducements to secure religious conversion amounted to an exploitative practice as it sought to influence the victims' religious choices by taking advantage of their personal and socio-economic vulnerabilities. Using material benefits to persuade individuals to abandon their existing faith compromised the voluntary nature of their religious choices. Conversion can only be considered genuinely voluntary when it stems from an individual's free will and personal conviction towards a faith, rather than inducements or external pressure. In this case, the perpetrator used various inducements to persuade Hindu residents to participate in activities intended to facilitate their conversion to Christianity. Such methods exploited the vulnerabilities of the targeted individuals and interfered with their freedom to make independent religious choices. The deliberate use of inducements to influence Hindus to abandon their faith demonstrated the coercive nature of these conversion efforts and constituted religiously motivated exploitation. Furthermore, making Hindu residents, including minors, participate in prayers dedicated to Jesus Christ demonstrated how Christian worship was being used as a means to facilitate their conversion. By conducting these activities under the guise of devotional singing and prayer gatherings, the perpetrator sought to familiarise Hindu participants with Christian religious practices and gradually influence their religious allegiance. This manipulative approach went beyond sharing religious beliefs, as the gatherings were being used to introduce practices intended to draw Hindus away from their existing faith and persuade them to embrace Christianity. Deliberately targeting members of the Hindu community in this manner demonstrated disregard for their religious identity and hostility towards their faith. Using religious activities to undermine their existing beliefs and facilitate their conversion constituted a form of religiously driven hostility against Hindus. It is also important to note that the victims included Hindu children. This raised serious concerns regarding consent and the ability of minors to make an informed religious choice. Minors, due to their young age and lack of maturity, are particularly vulnerable to manipulation and external influence. They may not have the ability to fully understand the implications of converting to another religion, and the perpetrator's targeting of children exposed this vulnerability. Since this case exemplifies the use of inducements and religious persuasion to influence religious conversion, it constituted a serious instance of religiously motivated exploitation targeting Hindus. These instances of targeted 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.
Case Status
Arrested
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Christian Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
