Hindus targeted for religious conversion through inducements in Pratapgarh; man attacked for resisting conversion
Pratapgarh, Uttar Pradesh, India 
21 November, 2025
Case Summary
In Pratapgarh, Uttar Pradesh, a Hindu man was lured with inducements to convert and beaten up when he resisted. Arvind Kumar, a resident of Bahriya village in the Mandhata police station area, reported that on 22nd November 2022, two young men from Babu Patti, Ugaipur, and four others invited him to a religious discussion in their village. Upon arriving, he found around 50 people gathered, with Manoj Gautam giving a sermon and encouraging people to convert to a particular religion. Manoj promised Arvind 2 lakh rupees in cash and stated that their sons would get to marry girls from the new religion in exchange for converting. When Arvind opposed the idea, he was beaten and forced to leave the area. The police were informed and arrived at the scene, but the accused had already fled. Arvind filed a formal complaint at the police station, demanding strict legal action against the perpetrators. The police are investigating the matter.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the tracker under the first primary category: Predatory Proselytisation. Within this, 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 second primary category selected here is: Attack not resulting in death. Within it, the sub-category selected is: Attacked for refusal to convert. When there is pressure, threat or coercion employed upon the Hindu victim to convert to a different religion, in several cases, the victim refuses to succumb to the pressure/threats. Once the victim refuses, the perpetrator proceeds to attack/assault the victim owing to his/her refusal to convert. In such cases, the pressure/threat/intimidation/coercion/violence itself is driven by animosity towards the victim’s Hindu faith. The violence, then, is another hate crime driven by the victim’s refusal to abandon his professed faith, Hinduism, and convert to the religion of a non-Hindu perpetrator. Since the victim’s faith is at the heart of the pressure to convert and the ensuing violence towards the victim, such cases are considered religiously motivated hate crimes. The incident in Ugaipur village was a clear case of a religiously motivated hate crime. Hindu individuals were lured with inducements to convert —an act that constituted coercion rather than choice. Offering inducements under the pretext of religious conversion was not an act of kindness or goodwill; it was a calculated attempt to exploit the financial, emotional and social vulnerabilities of the Hindu victims. Such coercive tactics violated their freedom of belief and targeted their faith identity, turning vulnerability into a tool of conversion. Conversion through inducements, therefore, reflected a form of hate-driven exploitation, where religion was used as a means to devalue and destabilise another community’s faith. The Hindu victims were systematically targeted through monetary manipulation, brainwashing and indoctrination designed to erode their religious identity and replace it with another belief system. These methods were not mere persuasion but deliberate psychological pressure that aimed to detach individuals from their ancestral religion. The use of emotional exploitation and mental conditioning to forcefully influence people towards conversion revealed deep-seated religious intolerance. Such manipulation stripped the victims of agency and dignity, reflecting animosity towards their Hindu beliefs and community identity. Also, when a Hindu man refused to convert and opposed the extremists, he was attacked. It is important to mention here that the underlying motivation of predatory proselytisation itself reflects animosity towards the professed faith of the victim. In this case, there was violence involved in the pressure exerted to intimidate the Hindu man. Since the central motivation is religion, this case has been added as a hate crime. Disclaimer: The case mentions that more than 50 individuals were present at the meeting, but does not provide an exact number or gender. For documentation purposes, we have recorded the maximum count of 50 victims in the database.
Victim Details
Total Victim
50
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 0
- Female 0
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 50
Caste
- SC/ST 0
- OBC 0
- General 0
- Unknown 50
Age Group
- Minor 0
- Adult 0
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 50
Case Status
Complaint filed
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Unknown
Perpetrators Range
Unknown
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
