Hindu family beaten, their house burnt down and forced to flee for not adopting Christianity
Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh, India 
26 December, 2024
Case Summary
A Hindu man named Mithun Lal and his family, residents of Ramnagar village, were assaulted and beaten for not converting to Christianity. The victim filed a police case along with workers of Vishva Hindu Parishad and reported that some people in the village had converted to Christianity and were pressurising him to convert his religion by luring him with Rs 5 lakh. When he refused, the accused threatened to kill his family. When he and his family were eating dinner at home, the accused entered his house and pressured him and his family to convert their religion. When he refused, the accused started beating him, his wife and children who came to rescue him. They also set their house on fire. The victim stated that the accused had threatened to drive them out of the village if they refused conversion.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added as a religiously motivated hate crime under two prime categories of the tracker. The first is- Predatory Proselytisation. Under this, the first sub-category selected 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. 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. The second sub-category selected under the above-mentioned prime category 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 category selected here is- Attack not resulting in death and within this, the sub-category selected is- Attacked for refusal to convert. When there is pressure, threat or coercion employed upon the Hindu victim to convert to a different religion, in several cases, the victim refuses to succumb to the pressure/threats. Once the victim refuses, the perpetrator proceeds to attack/assault the victim owing to his/her refusal to convert. In such cases, the pressure/threat/intimidation/coercion/violence itself is driven by animosity towards the victim’s Hindu faith. The violence then is another hate crime driven by the victim’s refusal to abandon his professed faith, Hinduism, and convert to the religion of a non-Hindu perpetrator. Since the victim’s faith is at the heart of the pressure to convert and the ensuing violence towards the victim, such cases are considered religiously motivated hate crimes. In this case, a Hindu family was initially offered financial incentives to renounce their faith and convert to Christianity. When they refused, they faced harassment and brutal physical assault. The Hindu man, along with his wife and children, was beaten, and their house was set on fire. The extreme violence was intended to intimidate them into succumbing to the perpetrator’s conversion demands. This incident follows a recurring pattern where vulnerable Hindus are deliberately targeted. Christian extremists exploit economic hardships by offering money and so-called miracle cures as a means to sever Hindus from their religious identity and coerce them into conversion. Such inducements are inherently predatory, as they manipulate the specific vulnerabilities of disadvantaged and impoverished Hindus. This practice is rooted in an underlying hostility toward the Hindu faith, as Abrahamic doctrines often view non-adherents as subjects to be dehumanized until they convert. Given that these coercive actions stem from doctrinal animosity toward Hinduism and its followers, this case qualifies as a religiously motivated hate crime.
Case Status
Complaint filed
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Christian Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
both
Sources 
