Hindu girl dies during fake medical treatment given to lure her to convert to Christianity
Gariaband, Chhattisgarh, India 
22 May, 2025
Case Summary
In Sursabandha village of the Gariaband district, a Hindu girl named Yogita Sonwani died due to a fake medical treatment being given to her by a Christian evangelist. The accused, Ishwari Sahu, a Christian missionary, used to treat poor people by luring them, massaging them and organising prayer meetings and used to motivate them to convert to Christianity. She also used to perform black magic in the name of healing. The victim, Yogita Sonwani, was a resident of Pacheda village in the Mahasamund district and had been living with the accused for the past three months for the treatment of her sickness. When Yogita’s family members visited the accused's house, they found the victim in a lifeless condition. They informed the police, after which the girl was transported to the hospital, where the doctors declared her dead. A preliminary postmortem report revealed that the accused would physically climb onto the girl and perform massages, which caused multiple fractures in her back ribs, ultimately leading to her death. As of the date of writing this report, the accused was arrested by the police, and 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: - Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination, with the tertiary 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 the Christian extremist was offering miracle cures to vulnerable Hindus in an attempt to disenfranchise them from their professed faith and convert them to Christianity. A young Hindu girl fell prey and died due to the exploitative and dishonest methods used by the Christian evangelist under the guise of treatment. Instead of guiding and taking the sick girl to a medical doctor, the accused woman, Ishwari Sahu, intentionally denied the girl proper medical attention and inflicted her cruel and physically harmful rituals in the name of faith healing. This deception was employed for the explicit purpose of conversion. Furthermore, this was not an isolated incident, she was also pressuring many of her patients into converting to Christianity. She also lured other poor and vulnerable individuals from the Hindu community under the false promise of miraculous healing and prayer meetings. Luring Hindus to convert to a different faith by offering money and inducements such as miracle cures for ailments is predatory in nature since the extremists manipulate the specific vulnerabilities of disadvantaged and poor Hindus to manipulate them into conversion. This stems from inherent hostility towards the victim's professed faith since Abrahamic faiths believe that any non-adherent to the faith is subject to being dehumanised till they convert. Since such predatory actions stem from doctrinal animosity towards the Hindu faith and its adherents, this case is being documented as a religiously motivated hate crime.
Victim Details
Total Victim
1
Deceased
1
Gender
- Male 0
- Female 1
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 0
Caste
- SC/ST 0
- OBC 0
- General 0
- Unknown 1
Age Group
- Minor 0
- Adult 0
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 1
Case Status
Arrested
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Christian Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
female
Sources 
