Multiple Hindu families lured to convert to Christianity in the name of healing miracles and exorcism
Kushinagar, Uttar Pradesh, India 
1 May, 2025
Case Summary
In the Kushinagar district of Uttar Pradesh, multiple Hindu families were lured and deceived to convert to Christianity by Christian missionaries, in the name of healing miracles and exorcism. The incident took place in Shahpur Khalwa Patti village in Dudhi Vikaskhand, where Christian missionaries were conducting prayer meetings every Tuesday from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. During these prayer meetings, Hindu families were lured and deceived through exorcisms and miracles. Attendees were also sold oil and water. It has been said that the missionaries were pressuring innocent villagers to convert to Christianity by making claims about curing serious illnesses. The matter came to light after local members of Bajrang Dal received information about the conversion activities and promptly alerted the local police. Acting on this tip-off, the police conducted a raid in the village, accompanied by the Bajrang Dal members. During the raid, four Christian missionaries were arrested at the scene on charges of attempting to convert people through inducement and false promises. As of the date of writing this report, the investigation was ongoing.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category of: - Predatory proselytisation. Within it, the sub-category 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 sub-category relevant here 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 third sub-category relevant here is: - Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination, with the tertiary sub-category being: - 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 has been added to the tracker because several Hindu families were deceived and manipulated by Christian missionaries in a planned effort to make them convert to Christianity. The victims were innocent Hindu villagers who were targeted specifically based on their social marginalisation, economic vulnerability and restricted access to healthcare and education. Disguised as weekly "prayer meetings," these villagers were exposed to manipulative techniques, such as exorcisms and miracles. These were purposefully employed to present Christianity as a superior and divine religion. The villagers were also coerced into converting to Christianity on the promise of curing serious medical illnesses- a cure that they either could not afford or for incurable diseases. Since exploiting vulnerabilities for the explicit purpose of conversion is purely based on animosity towards the victim's faith, this case is a textbook example of a religiously motivated hate crime. The Christian religion, by its theological nature, upholds a strong belief in proselytisation. In pursuit of conversion objectives, Christian evangelists often employ unethical means, ranging from psychological pressure and misinformation to inducements such as money or jobs or curing medical illness. These tactics are designed not as acts of charity but as tools to engineer religious change under the guise of social upliftment, or as in this case, curing serious illnesses, particularly among vulnerable and underprivileged communities. These conversion attempts are motivated by an intrinsic hatred against the victims' former faith, employing their vulnerabilities as a tool to gain religious and ideological control. Because taking advantage of vulnerabilities for the very purpose of conversion is entirely rooted in hatred for the victim's religion, this incident has been classified as a religiously motivated hate crime. Disclaimer: Although this report was published on May 21, 2025, it states that the Bajrang Dal alerted local police about the illegal conversion attempt in a letter dated May 2, 2025. Since the Hinduphobia Tracker records incidents from the earliest known date of the victim’s ordeal, May 2 has been selected as the incident date.
Case Status
Arrested
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Christian Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
unknown
Sources 
