Hindus being lured to convert to Christianity through false promises of healing from illnesses and financial gains

Case ID : 5954aaf | Location : Sitapur, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Sun, 29 December, 2024
Case ID : 5954aaf
location Sitapur, Uttar Pradesh, India
date 29 December, 2024
Hindus being lured to convert to Christianity through false promises of healing from illnesses and financial gains
Predatory Proselytisation
Conversion/ attempts to convert by inducement

Case Summary

In Sitapur district, Uttar Pradesh, police arrested five individuals—Santosh Bauddh, Mishrilal, Gangaram, Surendra, and Shivkumar—on charges of attempting to convert poor and Dalit Hindus to Christianity. The arrests took place in Dubai village, Tambaur police station area. Authorities recovered Bibles, musical instruments, and diaries from the accused. The incident unfolded when members of a Hindu organization received information about conversion activities at Surendra Jaiswal’s house. A crowd had gathered under the guise of a prayer meeting, where attendees were reportedly offered false promises of healing from illnesses and financial gains. They were pressured to abandon Hinduism. Police were called to the scene, and Deputy SP Sunil Kumar Yadav later confirmed the arrests.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the primary category "Predatory Proselytisation' under the sub-category '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. In this case, the Christian extremists were offering money and miracle cures to vulnerable Hindus in an attempt to disenfranchise them from their professed faith and convert them to Christianity. Luring Hindus to convert to a different faith by offering money and inducements such as miracle cures for ailments is predatory in nature since the extremists manipulate the specific vulnerabilities of disadvantaged and poor Hindus to manipulate them into conversion. This stems from inherent hostility towards the victim's professed faith since Abrahamic faiths believe that any non-adherent to the faith is a 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.

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Case Status


Arrested

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Perpetrators Details

Perpetrators


Christian Extremists

Perpetrators Range


From 2 To 5

Perpetrators Gender


male

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