Hindu man assaulted after refusing ₹1 lakh offer to convert to Christianity in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh
Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India 
12 August, 2024
Case Summary
In Ghaziabad, a Hindu man was assaulted after refusing an offer of ₹1 lakh to convert to Christianity. Kotwali police have registered a case against six individuals for organising a mass conversion programme where Hindu attendees were urged to abandon their faith and take an oath to accept Christianity by holding the Bible. Chhavinath Singh, son of Ram Vijay Singh and a resident of village Nara, met Uday Raj and his son Akash Kumar at the Darshan Nagar market. They took him to a programme in their village, Sai Ka Purwa. On arrival, he found around 400 people gathered, where Hindus were being offered ₹1 lakh each to convert to Christianity. The conversion ritual involved making people take an oath while holding the Bible. The programme was organised by Vimala Devi and her husband Uday Raj, along with their sons Abhishek Kumar and Akash Kumar, as well as Raghuveer and Chinta Devi, the wife of Dharamveer. When Chhavinath refused to accept the money and convert, the accused began assaulting him. The situation escalated as local Hindu organisations protested outside the Darshan Nagar police station. Police reached the venue, seized six Bibles and a banner, and questioned six individuals. Inspector Manoj Kumar Sharma confirmed that a case has been registered against the accused for their role in the attempted conversion and assault.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category- Predatory Proselytisation. The sub-category relevant in this case 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 sub-category selected 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 is a clear example of inducement for religious conversion. The perpetrators sought to entice Hindus with an offer of ₹1 lakh in exchange for abandoning their faith and accepting Christianity, a process formalised by taking an oath while holding the Bible. This approach exploits financial vulnerability and uses the lure of material benefit to undermine the religious identity of the victim. The targeting of Hindus with such an offer demonstrates that their faith was seen as something to be uprooted and replaced, making the religious identity of the victim the central focus of the act. As the intent was to erode the Hindu faith in exchange for money, this constitutes predatory proselytisation and a religiously motivated hate crime. When Chhavinath Singh refused to accept the money and convert, he was physically assaulted by the organisers of the programme. This escalation from inducement to direct physical harassment underscores the coercive element of the crime. The assault was not random—it was specifically triggered by his refusal to abandon Hinduism, showing the animosity towards his religious identity. Such acts of intimidation and violence are meant to pressure the victim into compliance and to create fear within the wider Hindu community, undermining their right to freely practice their religion. Because the harassment was directly tied to an attempt to force religious change, it constitutes a hate crime rooted in hostility towards Hindus and Hinduism. Disclaimer: It is important to clarify that the report does not specify the exact date when the conversion activity began. Therefore, for documentation purposes, we have recorded the date based on when the incident was reported in the media.
Case Status
Complaint filed
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Christian Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 5 to 10
Perpetrators Gender
both
Sources 
