Hindus offered money, threatened and forced to convert by Christian missionaries

Case Summary
Police in Jaunpur’s Mungarabadshahpur area arrested five individuals for their involvement in religious conversions in Fattupur Kala village. The arrests followed a complaint by Ram Asare Gautam, a resident of Neebhapur, who accused the group of organizing prayer meetings aimed at converting people to Christianity. The meetings reportedly took place every Monday in a building near Savitri Inter College and were conducted by Christian missionaries using local intermediaries. According to Gautam, the group lured villagers with promises of money and used threats to pressure them into converting. Gautam stated that for the past two to three months, individuals named Ramesh Gaur, Pradeep Kumar, Pannalal, Ajay Kumar, and Umashankar had visited his home multiple times. They reportedly offered him ₹3 lakh to convert and provided him with Christian literature, which he refused and returned. When Gautam declined their offers, the group threatened to implicate his son in a false case and harm him. Disturbed by the threats, Gautam sought help from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, who advised him to report the matter to the police. Acting swiftly on the complaint, Inspector Vinod Kumar Mishra led a raid at the location and arrested the five accused. The police also seized a motorcycle and Christian literature from the site.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the database under the prime category of- Predatory proselytisation. Under this, two sub-categories have been selected, based on case details. The first 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 sub-category 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. In this subcategory, we would only include cases where the victim was harassed, threatened or coerced to convert. Cases where attempts were made to convert but the victim resisted would be documented in another sub-category. 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. In this case, the Hindu victim alleged that the perpetrators organised prayer meetings where they offered money for conversion. He testified that he was offered a sum of Rs 3 lakhs to give up his faith and embrace Christianity. He also said that the Christian missionaries threatened to implicate his son in a false case and harm him when he refused to comply with their conversion demand. Luring Hindus to convert to a different faith by offering money and various inducements is predatory in nature since the extremists manipulate the specific vulnerabilities of disadvantaged and poor Hindus to manipulate them into conversion. Here too, the Christian evangelists tried adopting a similar tactic of exploiting the vulnerability of the Hindu victim to convert them to Christianity. Further, the victim was also threatened when he refused to accede to the conversion demands. This was an arm-twisting tactic that the perpetrators adopted to compel the victim to renounce his professed faith and accept Christianity. Such actions stem from inherent hostility towards the victim's professed faith since Abrahamic faiths believe that any non-adherent to the faith is subject to be dehumanised till they convert. Since such predatory actions stem from doctrinal animosity towards the Hindu faith and its adherents, this case is being documented as a religiously motivated hate crime.
Victim Details
Total Victim
1
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 1
- Female 0
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 0
Caste
- SC/ST 0
- OBC 0
- General 1
- Unknown 0
Age Group
- Minor 0
- Adult 1
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0

Case Status
Arrested

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