Hindu family pressured for conversion by Christian couple; minors forced to read Bible and recite religious prayers
Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh, India 
30 August, 2025
Case Summary
In the Shahganj area of Jaunpur district, Uttar Pradesh, a Hindu man named Virendra Kumar Jaiwal filed a complaint against his son and daughter-in-law for pressuring him to convert to Christianity. The accused also targeted minor children in the family and offered assurances and inducements for religious conversion. The Hindu man, Virendra Kumar Jaiwal, in his complaint to the police, stated that he has five sons and all live in the same house along with their own respective families. He revealed that one of his sons, Nitin Kumar Jaiswal and his daughter-in-law, Preeti Jaiswal, had converted to Christianity after coming into contact with some outsiders, including Pradeep Gautam and Sarita Devi. Subsequently, they began pressurising other members of their own family as well as people in the neighbourhood to convert to Christianity. The complaint stated that on 31 August 2025, two men came to his shop and there was an attempt made to convert him to Christianity, which was stopped following objections by the locals. He also stated that a minor child in the family, who was suffering from a serious illness, was repeatedly lured for conversion on assurances of miraculous healing offered in the name of faith. On 22 December 2025, at around 4 pm, minor Hindu children were called to the rooftop of the house, compelled to read the Bible and recite Christian prayers to convert them. They were threatened with death if they resisted. When family members protested, pressure was also exerted on them for conversion, including their wives and children. The FIR also named Pradeep Gautam alias Surya of village Badhopur and his wife Savita Devi, who were operating the wider conversion network, and those who opposed them were threatened with false legal cases. Based on the complaint, the police registered an FIR against five named individuals, along with several unidentified persons and initiated a formal investigation into the incident. The police stated that strict legal action would be taken after investigation.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case had been added to the tracker under the primary category of: Predatory proselytisation. Under this, the 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. The other sub-category selected here is - Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation, or subtle indoctrination. Under this, the selected tertiary category is - Pattern of targeting Hindus and Conversion of minor. 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. The other sub-category selected here 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. This case has been added to the tracker because a Hindu man named Virendra Kumar Jaiwal was pressured for religious conversion by his son, Nitin Jaiwal, and daughter-in-law, Preeti Jaiswal. Firstly, pressuring a Hindu individual to discard his religious faith and embrace another was a direct attack on his religious identity and dignity. It was not a matter of personal choice; it was coercion rooted in hostility towards the victim's Hindu identity. Such an attempt reflected religious animosity because the act was not simply about personal differences but about erasing the victim’s Hindu faith, making it a religiously motivated crime. Similarly, other family members were also pressured for religious conversion by the accused. Secondly, it is important to note that minor children in the family were also targeted for conversion. Since some of the victims were minors, the element of consent and genuine change of conscience was missing ab initio. Minors, due to their young age and lack of maturity, are particularly vulnerable to manipulation and coercion. They may not have the ability to fully understand the implications of converting to another religion, and the perpetrators purposely targeted and exploited this vulnerability of the victims. Since this case exemplifies the use of coercion and manipulation to achieve religious conversion, it is a blatant act of religious hate, which is why it has been documented here in the hate tracker. Such acts are not merely criminal in nature; they are ideologically charged, revealing religious prejudice and a calculated intent to alter the religious identity of a minor without their volition. Forcing them to read the Bible and recite Christian prayers meant to expose them to Christian religious practice and culture, thus making them more susceptible to conversion. Thirdly, the minor child who was suffering from illness was repeatedly lured for conversion on assurances of miraculous healing offered in the name of faith. Offering incentives or making false promises of healing, especially when directed at vulnerable individuals in need, shows that these actions were not acts of kindness or charity. Instead, they were calculated moves to exploit vulnerable Hindus because of their religion. By promising healing in exchange for conversion, the accused placed emotional and psychological pressure on a family that was already in a state of desperation, effectively using the child’s illness as leverage to push conversion. This form of coercion strips people of their agency and dignity and results in coerced conversions. These are not random or isolated incidents, but rather cases deeply rooted in religious animosity towards Hindu victims. Fourth, the Christian perpetrators forced minor children to read the Bible and recite Christian prayers in order to convert them. Using the scriptures or literature of one faith to deliberately target and manipulate members of another, with the clear intention of religious conversion, represented a direct attack on the Hindu faith. Such acts were not expressions of voluntary religious teaching but deliberate attempts to violate, undermine, and erode the faith of Hindu victims, particularly minors who lacked the capacity to consent or resist. The Christian faith, by its theological foundations, places a strong emphasis on proselytisation. In pursuit of conversion objectives, Christian evangelists often employ unethical means, ranging from psychological pressure and misinformation to inducements such as money or jobs. Such actions stem from inherent hostility towards the victim's professed faith, since Abrahamic faiths hold beliefs that devalue non-adherents until conversion occurs. This systematic attempt to erode the religious foundation of individuals and replace it with allegiance to another faith reflected deep religious malice and animus against Hindu identity. Because the core motivation of the act stemmed from hostility towards the victim’s religion, it met the threshold of a hate crime and was therefore categorised as such in the database. Disclaimer: It is important to clarify that none of the media sources covering this case have specified the exact date when the victim's ordeal began. The earliest date mentioned is 31 August 2025, when the victim was pressured for conversion by two men. Since Hinduphobia Tracker records the incident based on when the victim’s ordeal began and not when it was reported, we have considered the date of the incident as 31 August 2025, though the media reported the incident on 29 December 2025.
Case Status
Complaint registered
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Christian Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
both
Sources 
