Hindu family lured into conversion with promises of financial assistance and assured school admissions for their children

Case ID : b45f3e7 | Location : Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Fri, 22 November, 2024
Case ID : b45f3e7
location Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India
date 22 November, 2024
Hindu family lured into conversion with promises of financial assistance and assured school admissions for their children
Predatory Proselytisation
Conversion/ attempts to convert by inducement
Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination
Pattern of targeting Hindus

Case Summary

Sunny Mandot, a taxi driver residing in the Lasudia area, reported that members of the group approached his family, offering Rs 5 lakh and assurances of admission for his children into prestigious schools in exchange for converting to Christianity. Upon receiving this proposal, Sunny and his family declined and alerted the Hindu Jagran Manch. Members of the organization conducted a raid on the group's premises, uncovering substantial evidence, including financial transaction records, chequebooks, and a diary listing approximately 500 individuals, suggesting a widespread operation. The Hindu Jagran Manch apprehended three key members of the group—Kailash Masih, Raphael Paul, and Angelus Paul—and handed them over to the Lasudia police.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the category- Predatory Proselytisation and within this, 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 second sub-category relevant here is- Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination and within this, a tertiary category named- Pattern of targeting Hindus, has also been selected. 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 specific case, the victim's family belonged to the economically weaker section of the society. The Christian evangelists were attempting to convert them by offering them the inducement of money and school admissions, which clearly means that the Christian evangelists were attempting to exploit a specific vulnerability of the victims. Since exploiting vulnerabilities for the explicit purpose of conversion is purely based on animosity towards the victim's faith, this case has been categorised as a religiously motivated hate crime. Furthermore, the case has been linked to the tertiary category, Pattern of targeting Hindus, as the accused group’s modus operandi demonstrates a deliberate focus on Hindus, specifically those from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Evidence recovered from the accused, such as a diary containing a list of around 500 names, highlights a systematic pattern of targeting Hindu families. Since the motivating factor of the crime was the religious identity of the victims and the intention of the accused to disenfranchise them from it, the case has been categorised as a hate crime.

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Case Status


Complaint filed

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Perpetrators Details

Perpetrators


Christian Extremists

Perpetrators Range


From 2 To 5

Perpetrators Gender


male

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