Hindus, including minors, lured with inducements and manipulated to convert to Christianity in Chhattisgarh
Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh, India 
11 November, 2025
Case Summary
Hindu residents in the Bilaspur district of Chhattisgarh were targeted for forced Christian conversion, with conversion activities being concealed under the pretext of a prayer meeting. According to reports, the incident took place in Kukurdikhurd village, under the Pachpedi police station area, and resulted in the registration of a police case against two Christian individuals who promoted Christianity and attempted to convert Hindus through inducements. The members of a local Hindu organisation received information that a Christian prayer gathering was taking place at the house of a man named Sanjay Dandekar, where a large number of Hindu men, women, and children were present. When they arrived, they found that Sanjay Dandekar and Ririk Lahaskar were preaching Christianity and encouraging attendees to adopt the religion by offering material and emotional benefits. Religious texts, including Bibles and other Christian literature, were being used during the prayer session to influence people towards conversion. As the information spread, Hindu organisation members informed the Pachpedi police and reached the spot. A large crowd gathered, and the atmosphere turned tense, leading to commotion in the area. The police arrived shortly afterwards and stopped the prayer meeting, bringing the situation under control and preventing further unrest. Following the intervention, Narayan Patel, a representative of the Hindu organisation, filed a written complaint at the police station, stating that the organisers had used inducements and persuasion to convert Hindus to Christianity. Based on the complaint, the police registered a case against Sanjay Dandekar and Ririk Lahaskar, two Christians, under Section 299 and Section 3(5) of the Chhattisgarh Freedom of Religion Act, and began an investigation into the case. The police confirmed that the prayer meeting was immediately stopped, and statements from witnesses were being recorded to establish the extent of the conversion activity.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
The primary category in this case is: Predatory Proselytisation. The first subcategory under this 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 subcategory under this is: Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination. The tertiary category selected is- 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. This case stands as a stark example of predatory proselytisation, in which Christian perpetrators systematically targeted economically and socially vulnerable Hindus. They sought to coerce conversion to Christianity through a combination of material inducements, psychological manipulation, and persuasion. The conversion activity was deliberately masked by the façade of a Christian prayer meeting, demonstrating a calculated attempt to undermine the Hindu community using incentives and brainwashing techniques. This blending of religious preaching with offers of material benefit reflects a manipulative strategy designed to replace the victim’s ancestral Hindu faith through coercion rather than genuine conviction. The incident in Kukurdikhurd village reveals that a gathering of Hindus, including women and children, was assembled not for collective prayer but for exposure to Christian religious propaganda, specifically using texts like the Bible. The accused, Sanjay Dandekar and Ririk Lahaskar, offered various incentives to encourage conversion, directly exploiting the social and economic hardships faced by the attendees. This type of operation frequently relies on psychological coercion rather than open force, which allows it to appear benign while quietly dismantling the victims’ religious and cultural identity. In this context, the use of inducements is not an act of kindness; rather, it is a clear exploitation of the victims' vulnerabilities, amounting to a religiously motivated crime intended to further conversion. The use of repeated exposure to preachings of Christian religious texts, group gatherings, and emotional persuasion—amounting to subtle indoctrination and grooming—indicates a planned effort to shift emotional and spiritual allegiance away from the victims’ Hindu faith. The atmosphere of collective worship is transformed into an instrument of influence, shifting conversion from an act of personal choice to one of orchestrated manipulation. Furthermore, the targeted use of Christian religious texts to sow doubt and confusion in the minds of Hindus demonstrates a deep-seated religious animosity towards the Hindu community. Crucially, the victims also included Hindu children, meaning the element of consent and genuine change of conscience was absent from the outset. Minors, due to their age and lack of maturity, are uniquely susceptible to manipulation and coercion. They cannot fully grasp the long-term implications of converting to another religion, and the Christian perpetrators purposefully targeted and exploited this vulnerability in the minor victims. Since this case exemplifies the systematic use of coercion and manipulation to achieve religious conversion, it is a blatant act of a religiously motivated hate crime against Hindus. In essence, the Bilaspur incident represents a calculated form of proselytisation built upon deception, inducement, and psychological manipulation. While the outward appearance was that of a prayer meeting, the underlying intent was to systematically detach Hindus from their faith. The case, therefore, embodies the defining characteristics of a religiously motivated hate crime, where the exploitation of vulnerability and overt hostility toward Hindu identity converge under the cover of religious outreach. Given that this case meets the parameters of a religiously motivated crime, it is being added to the hate crime database of the Hinduphobia Tracker. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records the date of an incident according to when the crime took place, not when it was published or reported by news outlets. However, it is important to clarify that none of the media sources covering this case have specified the exact date on which the incident occurred. Therefore, for documentation purposes, the date has been recorded based on when the incident was first reported in the media, 12th November 2025.
Case Status
Complaint registered
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Christian Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
