Hindus lured with inducements and brainwashed to convert to Christianity in Garhwa, Jharkhand
Garhwa, Jharkhand, India 
28 October, 2022
Case Summary
In Ranka, in the Garhwa district of Jharkhand, Hindus were targeted for forced Christian conversion by members of a Christian missionary group. The accused lured victims with financial inducements and attempted to brainwash them into embracing Christianity. According to reports, ten Christian perpetrators were involved in the case. They were caught red-handed by local Hindu residents and handed over to the police. All the accused were residents of Odisha. The police detained six men, including the main accused, Bipin Bihari Pradhan, and his associate, Baban Ghasi, along with four women, including Ghasi’s wife, and began their interrogation. The accused had been posing as social workers, conducting prayers, and offering services while engaging in forced religious conversions over the past three years. The conversion gang’s leader, Bipin Bihari Pradhan, a resident of Rayagada district in Odisha, had been sent to Garhwa by a Christian missionary organisation called Friends Missionary Prayer Band, headquartered in Chennai with its state office in Sahibganj. He had made Tulsidamar village under Nagar Untari police station his base of operations, where he engaged in religious preaching and attempted to manipulate Hindu villagers into conversion. He specifically targeted economically vulnerable and poor Hindus by offering them financial assistance and persuading them to embrace Christianity. The entire conversion nexus was uncovered on 29th October 2025, when Bipin Bihari, along with his five-member team, arrived at Sukuldih Tola in the Ranka police station area from Tulsidamar. There, they convened a meeting at the house of a local resident named Baban Ghasi, where they were attempting to convince the villagers of the supposed benefits of praying to Jesus Christ as a means to overcome their difficulties. During this process, some villagers grew suspicious and alerted the police. The Ranka police promptly arrived at the location and took all the accused present into custody for interrogation. Local Hindu residents also demanded a thorough investigation and strict action against those responsible. Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) Rohit Ranjan Singh confirmed that the questioning of all detainees was ongoing and that appropriate legal action would follow based on the findings.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
The primary category selected in this case is- Predatory Proselytisation. The subcategory selected 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 subcategory selected is- Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination. The tertiary category selected is- Pattern of targeting Hindus. 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. This case represents a clear instance of an anti-Hindu hate crime as the Christian perpetrators specifically targeted Hindus for forced religious conversion. They focused on socially and economically vulnerable Hindus, exploiting their hardships to pressure them into embracing Christianity. The perpetrators offered prayers, services, and financial assistance to gain the trust of impoverished victims. However, this assistance was not an act of compassion but a calculated strategy to exploit the victims’ vulnerabilities and coercively manipulate them into conversion. The accused knew that these Hindus needed financial and emotional support and used this dependence to compel them to convert in exchange for aid. The inducements in this case were an exploitative instrument of coercion, designed not to uplift the victims but to trap them into abandoning their ancestral faith, Hinduism. Such manipulation of vulnerable Hindus to achieve conversion reflects deep-seated religious animosity and constitutes a deliberate, religiously motivated hate crime. The accused also subjected Hindu victims to severe forms of brainwashing under the guise of religious prayer meetings. During these gatherings, they attempted to convince the victims of the supposed benefits of worshipping Jesus Christ as a way to overcome their life struggles. This act of psychological manipulation undermined the Hindu faith by implying that devotees could not find peace or resolution through their own religion unless they converted to Christianity. Such ideas systematically weakened the victims’ spiritual confidence and self-identity. By presenting Christianity as the only true path and Hinduism as a false one, the perpetrators engaged in deliberate propaganda aimed at stripping the victims of their Hindu faith. This behaviour was not only deceptive but also an assault on the religious identity and dignity of Hindus, amounting to a targeted act of religious hatred. Reports further revealed that the accused were part of a wider missionary network, actively engaged in conversions for nearly three years. They operated across several areas of the Garhwa district, strategically targeting Hindu communities to promote Christianity. The systematic and prolonged nature of their actions demonstrates that this was not an isolated effort but an organised campaign built on anti-Hindu hostility. This pattern of targeted conversion through inducement, manipulation, and coercion confirms the presence of religiously motivated bias and hostility towards the Hindu community, making it an unmistakable case of anti-Hindu hate crime. These instances of targeted proselytisation activities stem from inherent hostility towards the victims' professed faith since Abrahamic faiths believe that any non-adherent to their faith is subject to being dehumanised till they convert, making it a religiously motivated crime against Hindus. Therefore, this case is being added to the hate crime database of the Hinduphobia Tracker. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records incidents based on the actual date when the crime occurred rather than when it is reported by the media. However, in this particular case, the media reports did not specify the exact date on which the Christian perpetrators began converting Hindus. The reports only stated that the accused had been carrying out conversions for the past three years (2022) and that they most recently attempted to convert Hindus in the Ranka area of the Garhwa district on 29th October 2025. Based on this information, 29th October 2022 has been recorded as the indicative date of the incident for documentation purposes. This date is intended solely to represent an estimated timeline of when the victims’ ordeal began.
Case Status
Arrested
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Christian Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 5 to 10
Perpetrators Gender
both
Sources 
