Hindu man resists conversion pressure, neighbours booked for luring with false promises
Haridwar, Uttarakhand, India 
25 August, 2025
Case Summary
A Hindu man named Dheeraj Kumar from Roshanpuri Colony, Haridwar, was pressurised by his neighbours, Ashok Haldia and his wife Anita, also called Rekha, to abandon his faith and convert his religion. For months, the couple repeatedly lured him with offers of a house and promises to arrange his daughter’s marriage. When Dheeraj refused, they continued to exert pressure, attempting to break his resolve. He reported that the husband and wife deliberately targeted poor and vulnerable Hindus, exploiting their needs with false assurances of financial and social support. After his complaint, the police registered a case and initiated an investigation into the matter.
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 under 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 proselytisation, such cases are considered religiously motivated hate crimes. This case is correctly described as a hate crime because the victim’s religious identity stands at the very centre of the acts committed against him. The offers of a house and promises for his daughter’s marriage were not acts of kindness but deliberate attempts to push him away from his religion. These inducements took advantage of his poverty and were aimed at separating him from his faith and community. Exploiting hardship in this way is already recognised as exploitation, but here it had a clear religious motive, making it an attack on his identity itself. Another part of the case is proselytisation through grooming and manipulation. The neighbours used their closeness and familiarity to influence him, slowly building trust in order to draw him towards conversion. This kind of deceptive relationship is what makes religious grooming dangerous and different from normal discussions or debates. Dheeraj Kumar also stated that Ashok Haldia and his wife did not stop with him, but tried the same tactics on several other Hindu families in the area. They repeatedly offered money, housing, and social promises to vulnerable people if they gave up their faith. This shows a clear pattern of targeting Hindus, taking advantage of their struggles to weaken their religious identity and break their bond with ancestral beliefs. The hostility towards the Hindu faith is evident in how poverty and personal ties were misused to pressure people. This is why the case goes beyond exploitation and becomes a religiously motivated hate crime, where the goal was not accidental but deliberate—to destroy continuity of belief within families and communities. Disclaimer: It is important to clarify that none of the media sources covering this case have specified the exact date on which the couple forced Dheeraj to convert. Therefore, for documentation purposes, we have recorded the date based on when the incident was reported in the media.
Victim Details
Total Victim
1
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 1
- Female 0
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 0
Caste
- SC/ST 0
- OBC 0
- General 0
- Unknown 1
Age Group
- Minor 0
- Adult 1
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Complaint filed
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Christian Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
both
Sources 
