Hindu woman lured with financial offers for conversion to Christianity in Greater Noida, UP
Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India 
17 October, 2025
Case Summary
A Hindu woman was targeted for religious conversion in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, by a group of Christian missionaries. The victim, Ritu Garg, a resident of Sector Delta-2 under the Surajpur police station area, was approached multiple times by four individuals who tried to lure her into converting to Christianity by offering money. According to a police complaint filed by her husband, Kapil Garg, the accused, identified as Anuj Kumar of Lucknow, Sunpreet and his wife Archana Gogiya of Delhi, and Sunita of Omicron-3, Greater Noida, had been visiting their home repeatedly to promote Christianity. Kapil stated that his wife was told about the “benefits” of Christianity and was promised financial support if she agreed to convert. On 18 October 2025, when Kapil returned home, he found the four inside his house attempting to convince his wife again. When he objected, they threatened him and tried to escape in their car. With the help of neighbours, Kapil caught them and handed them over to the police. Officers recovered Christian pamphlets and Bible verses from their possession. Station in-charge Vinod Kumar confirmed that an investigation was underway. Police said the accused had initially approached the complainant’s neighbour Rekha, whose child was unwell. Sunita first visited Rekha’s home under the pretext of enquiring about the sick child and later returned to hand her Christian pamphlets. Kapil Garg, who lives nearby and is a volunteer with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), stated that the group targeted households with ill children, particularly engaging with women. Preliminary inquiry revealed that Sunpreet and Archana, both around 60 years old, worked as accountants; Sunita was a homemaker and her husband a retired government employee; Anuj worked in a private company. Police were probing the funding source for their missionary activities and their connection to Christian organisations. Investigators suspect links between the accused and a US-based missionary group named Jw.org, which operates offices in the United States and provides evangelical literature distributed by local volunteers. Hindu groups have stated that the organisation runs missionary operations across Noida, Greater Noida, and Delhi, facilitating conversion drives. ACP (Central Noida) B.S. Veer stated that although the group promotes Christianity, no conclusive evidence has yet been found of forced conversion. All four accused were questioned, served notices, and released pending further investigation.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
The primary category in this case is: Predatory Proselytisation. The subcategory under this 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 second subcategory 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 under the category of Predatory Proselytisation, with the subcategory Conversion or attempts to convert by inducement. It represents a systematic and targeted attempt to undermine a Hindu woman’s religious identity through manipulation, deceit, and financial temptation. The accused individuals, posing as ordinary visitors, sought to exploit the faith and trust of a Hindu family by repeatedly approaching the victim, Ritu Garg, and attempting to persuade her to embrace Christianity in exchange for monetary incentives. This calculated form of inducement constitutes an attack not only on the individual’s freedom of belief but also on the collective integrity of the Hindu community. The repeated visits, distribution of Christian pamphlets, and the use of material benefits to influence conversion reflect a deliberate design to erode the victim’s spiritual and cultural foundation. Predatory Proselytisation often operates under the guise of “charitable” or “religious outreach” but carries a clear pattern of targeting vulnerable Hindus—particularly women, the economically modest, and those facing distress or illness. In this case, the accused approached homes where children were sick, attempting to use emotional distress and compassion as entry points for religious conversion. Such tactics represent psychological and moral exploitation rather than genuine religious discourse. The act of offering money or other material incentives to induce a person to abandon their ancestral faith is inherently coercive, even if physical force is absent. It violates the spirit of India’s constitutional protection of freedom of religion, which explicitly prohibits conversion through inducement or misrepresentation. By identifying households and persuading Hindu women to convert under financial temptation, the perpetrators acted from a position of religious animosity—viewing Hindu faith as something to be replaced rather than respected. The Christian missionaries repeatedly targeted Ritu Garg, visiting her home several times despite her disinterest, offering her money and promising benefits if she converted to Christianity. Such persistent and unsolicited visits amount to psychological harassment, aimed at breaking resistance through emotional pressure. When confronted by her husband, the accused even resorted to threats, revealing the coercive intent behind their actions. Furthermore, the suspected link between the accused and Jw.org, a US-based Christian organisation, suggests a larger, organised missionary network actively promoting conversion among Hindus in urban areas like Greater Noida and Delhi. This cross-regional and foreign-funded nexus amplifies the seriousness of the offence, showing how external evangelical structures influence local communities in India with conversion agendas. Therefore, this case constitutes a hate crime against Hindus, as the victim’s faith was directly targeted, and her religious identity was treated as inferior or replaceable. Such actions attack the dignity of Hindu belief, disrupt social harmony, and violate the constitutional right to practise one’s religion free from manipulation or inducement. The attempt to monetise faith conversion transforms religious interaction into predation, thereby qualifying this case as a clear instance of religiously motivated hate against Hindus. Disclaimer: It is important to note that the media coverage of this case does not mention the precise date when the victim was approached for conversion. The earliest documented interaction occurred on October 18, 2025, when the accused attempted to convince the victim to change her religion. Since the Hinduphobia Tracker records incidents based on when the victim’s ordeal began rather than the date of reporting, we have considered October 18, 2025, as the date of the incident, even though the media covered the case on 19 October 2025.
Victim Details
Total Victim
1
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 0
- Female 1
- 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
Perpatrator released by Police
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Christian Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
both
Sources 
