Hindu man commits suicide following pressure from wife and in-laws for conversion

Case Summary
Gajendra alias Suraj Devangan, a 35-year-old resident of Ward-11, Arjunda Nagar, was found hanging from a ceiling fan in his room. A suicide note and wall writings revealed the reasons for his extreme step, including ongoing disputes with his wife and harassment from her family over religious conversion. Gajendra had been facing frequent quarrels with his wife, Rakeshwari Devangan, who had converted to Christianity under pressure from her family. These conflicts led to her repeatedly leaving for her maternal home, leaving their children behind. He had previously lodged a complaint at the Arjunda police station on December 8, reporting the harassment and objecting to his wife’s conversion. Family members of the deceased stated that Gajendra's in-laws pressured his wife to adopt Christianity, creating tensions at home. They said that his wife also erased traditional Hindu symbols from their house, which deeply disturbed him. Police found a Bible, Rs 18,890 in cash, and a donation letter at the scene. Gajendra’s wall writings mentioned financial harassment by a person named Prakash Devangan, as well as ongoing harassment from his wife, father-in-law, mother-in-law, and brother-in-law. His family claimed that these pressures contributed to his emotional distress. The police registered a case and conducted a post-mortem before handing over the body to the family. The police, however, refuted the allegations of pressure to convert to Christianity by his wife and in-laws and said that the reason for Suraj to end his life was financial stress.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
Based on the details, this case has been added to the tracker under two prime categories. The first is- Men attacked for being associated with non-Hindu women. Under this, the sub-category chosen is- Suicide upon being forced to convert. When Hindu men are in a relationship with non-Hindu women, there are cases where the Hindu man faces pressure/threats/violence to convert and change his religious identity by the non-Hindu spouse or her family or/and religious leaders. Such relationships may be consensual with the religious identity of the non-Hindu spouse known to the victim. Somewhere along the relationship, the non-Hindu spouse starts forcing/pressurizing the Hindu man to convert. In some of these cases, unable to bear the pressure/threat/violence being mounted by the non-Hindu partner or her family to convert, the Hindu man commits suicide. In such cases, often, threats are also given to the family members of the Hindu man. Since such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim, leading to the Hindu spouse committing suicide, these cases are categorized as a hate crime. The second category under which the case has been placed is- Predatory proselytisation. Under this, the sub-category selected is- Suicide after pressure to convert. When there is pressure, threat or coercion employed upon the Hindu victim to convert to a different religion, in several cases, owing to the humiliation or pressure/threat, the victim commits suicide. In such cases, the pressure/threat/intimidation/coercion/violence itself is driven by animosity towards the victim’s Hindu faith. The pressure/threat that is employed leads to the Hindu victim taking his own life. Since the victim’s faith is at the heart of the pressure to convert and the ensuing suicide by the victim, such cases are considered religiously motivated hate crimes. This case is a distinct case of religiously motivated hate crime as the Hindu victim was being forced to give up his professed faith and accept Christianity. Unaccepting, the victim committed suicide. In his suicide note, the deceased confirmed that his wife and his in-laws were harassing and pressuring him to undergo religious conversion to Christianity. By pushing him towards conversion, the perpetrators aimed to forcefully erase the victim's religious identity, which is a form of religious persecution, stemming from the deep disdain that the perpetrators held for the victim's faith, Hinduism. Since the central motivation here was religion, this case has been added as a hate crime to the database. Notably, the police denied the communal angle in the case and attributed the Hindu man's death only to his financial stress. The police, in many such cases, where the motive behind the crime is obvious but not explicitly mentioned, deny that the crime committed was in any way motivated by a religious bias or say that there was ‘no communal angle’ to the crime. Several factors are generally at play here. Many a time the police downplay incidents of low-level communal crime because it is their jurisdiction that comes under question. The police also often say that there was ‘no communal angle’ to a crime when there was one because they wish to ensure that owing to the crime already committed, there is no further flare-up in the area. Likewise, the Left media and the leftist elite are also inclined to emphasise this "no communal angle" trope, especially wherever the victim of the crime is a Hindu. However, only a police statement or a media report, for instance, cannot be enough to determine whether there is a communal angle present in the crime that has been committed. In fact, to determine whether the crime is communal in nature or not, we need to give emphasis to the ground realities. For example in the case of Rinku Sharma, the Bajrang Dal activist who was mercilessly stabbed in his house in front of his family members in Delhi’s Mangolpuri area in the year 2021, the leftist media and the leftist ecosystem had tried to peddle that there was no communal angle to the crime. Even the police denied that the crime was communal in nature. However, Opindia spoke to several people who are on the ground with the family of Rinku Sharma and we were told that the communal tension in the area is palpable. The family of Rinku Sharma has said that the Muslims of the area held a grudge against Rinku ever since he celebrated the Ram Mandir verdict. Like the case of Rinku Sharma, those cases where even if the police have denied a communal angle or the leftist media have gone on an overdrive to peddle the ‘no communal angle’ trope, the ground reality, like the victim’s family or relative's testimonies, make it clear that there was an obvious religious bias that led to the crime, will be documented in this tracker. Going by the same logic, since the family members of the deceased testified that he committed suicide following pressure from his wife and in-laws for religious conversion, this case has also been included in the tracker.
Victim Details
Total Victim
1
Deceased
1
Gender
- Male 1
- Female 0
- 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
Complaint registered

Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Christian Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
both