Hindu couple in Balrampur threatened, harassed, and targeted with false cases for refusing to convert to Islam

Case ID : 9957ed9 | Location : Balrampur, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Fri, 11 July, 2025

Case ID : 9957ed9

Balrampur, Uttar Pradesh, India

11 July, 2025

Hindu couple in Balrampur threatened, harassed, and targeted with false cases for refusing to convert to Islam

Predatory Proselytisation

Conversion/ attempts to convert by inducement

Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion

Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination

Pattern of targeting Hindus

Case Summary

In Balrampur, Uttar Pradesh, a Hindu man named Sanchit and his wife were lured to convert to Islam with incentives by a Muslim Peer Baba named Chhangur Baba aka Jalaluddin. Both victims were also subjected to death threats and were harassed with false cases for refusing to convert. According to media reports, the victim, Sanchit, worked as a sweeper at Chhangur Baba’s residence. Chhangur Baba tried to entice him to convert by offering him ₹5 lakh, promising to build him a house, and offering to gift him a motorbike. When Sanchit rejected the offer and refused to convert, Chhangur Baba threatened to kill him. While speaking to a media channel, Sanchit said, “I worked at his house for six months. After that, he threatened that my family and I would be killed if I did not convert to Islam. He offered me ₹5 lakh, promised to build a house for my family, and gift me a bike. But I told him that I follow Sanatan Dharma and that I would remain in the religion I was born into.” After Sanchit refused to convert, the contractors working at Chhangur Baba’s residence also confronted him. Chhangur Baba withheld his wages and demanded that he return all the money previously paid for his services. Chhangur Baba’s associate also abused and threatened Sanchit. Sanchit said, “I told him (Chhangur Baba) that I would not renounce my Hindu religion. I would keep reciting the Hanuman Chalisa for the rest of my life.” Bullied by Chhangur Baba and his associates, Sanchit approached the DIG to file a complaint, but no action was taken. He wandered from place to place seeking protection, but he failed to seek justice. Unable to obtain any help, Sanchit moved to Lucknow with his family to escape Chhangur Baba and his men. Following this, Chhangur Baba filed false criminal cases against Sanchit and his wife to pressure them to convert to Islam. Chhangur Baba paid individuals in Sanchit’s village to provoke a fight with his wife, which resulted in her spending 24 days in jail. Sanchit sold his land, borrowed money, and exhausted all his savings to secure her bail and fight the cases filed against them. A false case of rape was also filed against Sanchit, and two criminal cases remained pending against him. Sanchit said that Chhangur Baba harassed many people who came to work at his residence, and that many girls were brought there. Investigations into the conversion racket exposed Chhangur Baba’s links with the criminal syndicate of mafia Mukhtar Ansari. The ATS registered a case against 10 people, including Chhangur Baba and arrested him along with his wife on 5th July 2025. The ATS confirmed that the Muslim accused received foreign funding of Rs 100 crore to carry out illegal conversions of Hindus and other non-Muslims in India. Even his family was involved in the conversions of Hindus to Islam. The Hinduphobia Tracker previously reported two cases involving Chhangur Baba, where he used coercion to convert Hindu individuals to Islam. In the first case, Chhangur Baba encouraged a Muslim man named Meraj to lure a Hindu woman named Aarti by posing as a Hindu. Afterwards, Chhangur, along with Meraj, forcibly converted her to Islam and conducted her Nikah according to Islamic customs. Another case involved a Hindu man named Harjeet, who was forcibly converted to Islam by Chhangur Baba. The accused had offered Harjeet incentives and subjected him to harassment and had filed false cases against him in an attempt to persuade him to convert to Islam.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the 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 other subcategory 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 subcategory selected is- Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination. The tertiary category selected in this 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. In this case, a Hindu man and his wife were forced to convert to Islam by a Muslim Peer named Chhangur Baba and his accomplice. This was not a random incident, but a targeted attack against Hindu individuals because of their religious identity. When individuals or groups single out Hindus for conversion due to their religious identity, it demonstrates a deep disregard for the Hindu faith. Conversion, especially when it is not a matter of personal conviction but the result of pressure or harassment, is not simply about changing beliefs. It is an attempt to undermine the values, traditions, and identity of the Hindu community itself. In this situation, the Muslim perpetrators deliberately targeted the Hindu man and his wife for conversion, showing a clear lack of respect for Hinduism and its adherents. The use of incentives by the perpetrators to persuade the Hindu victims to convert to Islam makes it clear that their actions were not motivated by goodwill or compassion. Instead, this was a calculated attempt to exploit the Hindu victims because of their religion. Coercion of this kind robs individuals of their agency and dignity, and enforces conversions against their will. These are not isolated events, but deliberate and premeditated efforts to undermine the Hindu faith, to persuade Hindus to abandon their beliefs and convert them to Islam. Such acts are deeply rooted in religious animosity towards Hindus and their faith. In fact, these are common tactics used to influence or manipulate vulnerable Hindus into changing their faith. This approach often targets economically disadvantaged groups, offering material benefits such as food, money, or livestock in exchange for conversion. It creates a form of dependency that can alienate individuals from their original faith, as they may feel compelled to convert not out of genuine belief but due to immediate needs or financial pressures. Here, too, the Muslim peer adopted a similar tactic of exploiting the vulnerability of the Hindu man and his wife to convert them to Islam. The ordeal did not end there. The Hindu couple were subjected to harassment by the perpetrators, who withheld the victim's salary and also filed false legal cases against them. Chhangur Baba also demanded that Sanchit return all the money previously paid for his services. He also paid people to file false cases against his wife, which landed her in jail. Even false cases, including a rape case, were falsely filed against Sanchit. This was done to pressure the victims to convert to Islam. This form of harassment and coercion is a direct attack on their freedom of religious belief, creating an environment of intimidation and fear. The Muslim perpetrators intended to suppress and break the spirit of the Hindu victims. Such actions are stark examples of religious intolerance and hatred towards Hindus and their faith. The victims also received death threats when they refused to convert to Islam. Such acts are intended to intimidate and force Hindu victims into complying with the demands of the Muslim perpetrators. These actions clearly demonstrate that the incidents were not isolated, but rather premeditated and well-calculated efforts to convert Hindus to Islam through coercion. This action reflects deep-seated religious hostility towards Hindus and their faith, making these incidents religiously motivated crimes. The Chhangur Baba case reveals a clear and consistent pattern of targeted hate crimes against Hindus. In at least three separate instances, he used a combination of identity fraud, inducement, coercion, and legal harassment to forcibly convert Hindus to Islam. In one case, he used a Muslim man named Meraj to deceive a Hindu woman by posing as Hindu, later forcing her into conversion and Nikah. In another case, a Hindu man named Harjeet was lured with incentives, then harassed and framed in false cases to break his resistance to conversion. The latest case involving Sanchit and his wife follows the same method—offers of money and material benefits, followed by threats and criminal framing when the conversion was refused. This repeated use of deception and force to destroy Hindu religious identity establishes a deliberate and targeted pattern of predatory proselytisation, amounting to a hate-driven campaign against Hindus. These incidents reveal a repeated and disturbing pattern of forcibly converting Hindus to Islam through deceit and coercion, making this a clear example of religiously motivated crime against Hindus. Accordingly, this case is being added to the hate crime database. Disclaimer: It is important to clarify that the report does not specify the exact date when the victim's ordeal began. Therefore, for documentation purposes, we have recorded the date based on when the incident was reported in the media.