Hindu woman files a complain against her nephew and parents-in-law, says she and her husband being harassed and beaten to embrace Christianity
Delhi, India 
21 September, 2024
Case Summary
A conversion racket going on in Delhi-NCR was busted following a complaint filed by Sangeeta Singh on September 22, 2024. In her complaint, Sangeeta alleged that her nephew and parents-in-law have been compelling her and her husband to embrace Christianity. In the FIR, the Hindu woman said that her nephew had embraced Christianity three years ago after being promised financial benefits. Later, he converted his grandparents and now they all together, were forcing her and her husband to embrace Christianity. She said that when they refused, they were beaten up and threatened with death. When police were probing this case, they unearthed a huge conversion racket being carried out by four Christian evangelists identified as Aashu (19), Paster Rasi Balram Singh (52), Polus Masih (43), and Chattu Kumar (34). They were arrested for converting 120 people to Christianity across Delhi NCR. The accused reportedly organised illegal conversions, using coercion and inducements.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the tracker under the prime category- Predatory proselytisation. Under this, the sub-category selected is- Harassment, threat, 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. In this subcategory, we would only include cases where the victim was harassed, threatened or coerced to convert. Cases where attempts were made to convert but the victim resisted would be documented in another sub-category. 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. This case is a distinct case of religiously motivated hate crime as the victim herself testified that her nephew and in-laws, who had embraced Christianity employed threat and coercion to attempt to get her and her husband to give up their professed faith and accept Christianity, an alien faith for them. Since the motivating factor of the crime was the religious identity of the victims and the accused employed violence and intimidation to disenfranchise them from it, the case has been included in the database.
Victim Details
Total Victim
2
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 1
- Female 1
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 0
Caste
- SC/ST 0
- OBC 0
- General 2
- Unknown 0
Age Group
- Minor 0
- Adult 2
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Complaint filed
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Christian Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
both
Sources 
