Hindus lured to convert to Christianity under pretext of curing diseases in Korba, Chhattisgarh
Korba, Chhattisgarh, India 
13 December, 2025
Case Summary
In Sutarra village, in the Katghora police station area of Korba district, Chhattisgarh, Hindus were lured with false promises of curing diseases to convert to Christianity by a pastor named Bajrang Jaiswal and his Christian accomplices. According to reports, on 14th December 2025, a dispute erupted between the Christian community and Hindu organisations over a prayer meeting. The Christian community organised a prayer meeting in a field, and Pastor Bajrang Jaiswal led the meeting. Hundreds of Hindus were lured to the gathering for forced Christian conversions. The prayer meeting misled Hindu villagers by claiming that prayers could cure illnesses and other ailments. When the village head, Santoshi Bai, learned of the gathering, she complained. Bajrang Dal activists then arrived at the scene and protested the gathering. Bajrang Dal district president Narendra Thakur stated that Pastor Bajrang Jaiswal was accompanied by some outsiders. He said the pastor specifically targeted childless couples and those suffering from serious illnesses like cancer, claiming to cure them through prayer. This tricked villagers into falling for his trap. Narendra Thakur also said that Pastor Jaiswal had previously held healing services in the Katghora area, which faced protests. He was jailed for that incident and later warned not to hold meetings without permission, but his activities continued. Following the incident, accusations and counter-accusations erupted between the two parties, and the matter reached the Katghora police station. At the police station, Hindu organisations demanded strict action against Pastor Bajrang Jaiswal. The Bajrang Dal warned of a protest if such activities continued. At the time of writing this report, the police started investigating the matter on the basis of the complaint from the sarpanch (village head), and the situation is being monitored. Notably, the Hinduphobia Tracker previously documented another case where the accused Bajrang Jaiswal conducted forced Christian conversions. In November 2025, Hindus faced targeting for religious conversion by Bajrang Jaiswal in Katghora town. The accused also abused Hindu deities, disrupting the religious and social environment of the neighbourhood.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
The primary category selected in this case is- 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- Pattern of targeting Hindus. 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 case constitutes a clear instance of a religiously motivated hate crime against Hindus, as Pastor Bajrang Jaiswal and his Christian accomplices ruthlessly targeted vulnerable Hindu villagers for forced conversion by deceitfully promising miraculous cures for their illnesses. This manipulative ploy exploited the desperate suffering of Hindus battling cancer, infertility, and other ailments, preying on their trust to drag them away from their sacred Hindu faith under the false banner of healing prayers. This deceitful inducement stemmed not from compassion or goodwill but from the deliberate intent to dismantle the Hindu community and impose Christianity upon them, establishing it as a textbook religion-driven hate crime. Beneath these sham healing rituals, the accused unleashed psychological and spiritual warfare, determined to shatter the victims' deep-rooted Hindu faith and enforce Christianity on them. This invasive onslaught ravages the personal faith of the victims and demonstrates utter contempt for Hinduism's revered practices, reducing vulnerable Hindu devotees to pawns in a calculated scheme to obliterate their religious identity—a defining trait of profound animosity powering religiously motivated crimes. Evidence exposed the predation's vast scale: the pastor and his group orchestrated mass conversion drives across villages, ensnaring hundreds in their trap. Bajrang Jaiswal's record of prior arrests for identical forced conversions, including jail time and ignored warnings, confirmed this was no isolated error but a premeditated, unyielding pattern of predatory targeting of Hindus. This systematic campaign to strip Hindu victims of their faith under healing pretences showcased that the act was a result of deep-seated religious hatred. These proselytisation tactics arise from Abrahamic doctrines that dehumanise non-believers until they submit and convert, treating Hindus as conquests to be stripped of dignity. This inherent hostility turns vulnerable Hindus into targets purely for their faith, solidifying it as a religiously motivated hate crime. Consequently, this anti-Hindu hate crime is being added to the Hinduphobia Tracker’s hate crime database. Disclaimer: In this case, even though media reports stated that both Pastor Bajrang Jaiswal and his accomplices were involved in carrying out conversions, the total number of his accomplices was not specified. Therefore, for the purpose of documenting this crime, the perpetrator count has been conservatively recorded as one (1), referring to Pastor Bajrang Jaiswal alone. In this case, the total number of victims was also not clearly specified. Only one report mentioned that hundreds of Hindus were targeted for conversion. Hence, for documentation purposes, a conservative estimate has been used, and the victim count has been recorded as '100'.
Victim Details
Total Victim
100
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 0
- Female 0
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 100
Caste
- SC/ST 0
- OBC 0
- General 0
- Unknown 100
Age Group
- Minor 0
- Adult 0
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 100
Case Status
Complaint filed
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Christian Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
