Hindu youth lured with inducements to convert to Christianity, manipulated to attend prayer meetings in church
Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, India 
22 December, 2025
Case Summary
In Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, a Dalit Hindu man named Amit Kevat was lured with monetary benefits by a Christian man named Robin to convert to Christianity. The accused, Robin, made repeated visits to Amit’s stall over several days to manipulate him to convert and attend prayer meetings at a church. According to reports, Amit Kevat ran a roadside Chinese food stall in the Ranjhi area. Robin, a Christian, visited his stall repeatedly over several days and attempted to influence him by claiming that his poverty and hardships would end if he converted to Christianity. He approached Amit regularly, urging him to attend prayer meetings and manipulating him with statements such as, “How can one survive with a mere food stall? Jesus can improve your life.” Robin also invited Amit to a church in Bilpura for a prayer meeting and pressured him to convert, claiming it would change his fortune. Amit was further offered monetary incentives to convert. In response to the attempted conversion effort, Amit asserted his Hindu identity and categorically refused to convert to Christianity. He stated, “I am a proud Hindu and will not convert,” and declined to abandon his faith. Subsequently, Amit Kevat went to the Ranjhi police station with workers from Hindu organisations and filed a formal complaint. The police registered an FIR and arrested Robin.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case is documented under the primary category: Predatory Proselytisation. The first subcategory 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 is: Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination. Under this, the tertiary category selected is: 'Victim says was brainwashed/groomed'. 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. In this case, the Hindu man, Amit Kevat, was lured with monetary inducements to convert to Christianity by the Christian perpetrator, Robin. These inducements were not acts of kindness or generosity; rather, they served as calculated enticements to coerce Amit into abandoning his Hindu faith. Robin exploited Amit's economic vulnerability, running a modest roadside Chinese food stall, through repeated visits and arm-twisting promises that conversion would end his poverty. This predatory tactic to strip a Hindu of his religious identity marks a clear instance of a religiously motivated hate crime against Hindus. The victim was also manipulated to attend prayer meetings at a church in Bilpura, with explicit promises that all his life problems would be solved and he would no longer be poor if he converted to Christianity. Robin deployed targeted statements like, "How can one survive with a mere food stall? Jesus can improve your life," to prey on Amit's hardships. Such tactics of manipulation, exploiting the vulnerabilities of a Hindu to forcibly convert him to Christianity, reveal deep-seated religious animosity towards the Hindu community. These predatory conversion methods constitute a religiously motivated hate crime. Pressuring and manipulating the victim to attend church prayer meetings over several days further demonstrates a deliberate, predatory, and premeditated intent to erode and strip him of his Hindu faith. Robin's persistent visits to Amit's stall, combined with invitations and incentives to convert, formed a systematic campaign against his religious identity. This calculated aggression, targeting a Hindu's faith without consent, solidifies its classification as a religiously motivated hate crime. Such forced conversion attempts are a violation of the victim's religious autonomy and are a deliberate attack on his religious beliefs. Since this case meets the parameters of a religiously motivated offence, including targeting based on faith identity, predatory inducements, and manipulation, it is being added to the hate crime database of the Hinduphobia Tracker. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records incident dates based on when the crime occurs, rather than when reported by the media. Here, media reports do not specify the exact date when the victim's ordeal began. For documentation purposes only, 23rd December 2025, the date when the media first reported this has been selected as the indicative date of the incident.
Victim Details
Total Victim
1
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 1
- Female 0
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 0
Caste
- SC/ST 1
- OBC 0
- General 0
- Unknown 0
Age Group
- Minor 0
- Adult 1
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Arrested
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Christian Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
