Hindu youth lured with inducement to convert to Christianity, then threatened and assaulted for refusal
Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh, India 
19 November, 2024
Case Summary
In Balua village of Badlapur Kotwali area in Uttar Pradesh, a Hindu youth named Rajesh Chauhan was lured with one lakh rupees to convert to Christianity. When he refused to convert, the accused brutally beat up Rajesh. The victim complained about this matter to the Kotwali police and demanded strict action against the accused. Rajesh Chauhan, in his police complaint, reported that on 20th November at 8 PM, five missionary people reached his house, including Akhilesh Chauhan, Arjun, Rita, Sunita and others. These people lured him with one lakh rupees to accept Christianity. When Rajesh refused to convert, they beat him brutally and threatened to murder him. They lodged many abuses against Rajesh. He said that the missionary members would force him and his family to accept Christianity. He feared that they would forcefully try to convert them in the future; therefore, he filed an official police complaint. After getting information about this case, Kotwali officer Vinod Kumar Mishra lodged a case against all the accused Christians. Meanwhile, more than 12 members of Hindu organisations gathered in the Kotwali premises and demanded strict action against the missionaries. BJP's Mithilesh Kumar Singh, Ramkripal Bind, VHP's provincial Gau Raksha Pramukh Mahendra Shukla, and Bajrang Dal convenor Satya Shukla were also present at the police station demanding strict action against the radical Christian missionaries.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category- Predatory Proselytisation. Within this, the subcategory selected is- Conversion/ attempts to convert by inducements. 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 other 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. 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. In this case, the accused attempted to lure a Hindu youth, Rajesh Chauhan, with a cash offer of ₹1 lakh to abandon his Hindu faith and adopt Christianity. The inducement was targeted specifically at his religious identity, with the explicit objective of erasing it and replacing it with the perpetrator’s faith. Offering monetary incentives for religious conversion is a deliberate and predatory tactic aimed at exploiting the victim’s circumstances or vulnerabilities. In this case, the inducement was the first step in a broader agenda of predatory proselytisation, intended to undermine the Hindu victim’s right to freely practice his religion. Upon Rajesh’s refusal to convert, the accused resorted to brutal physical assault, verbal abuse, and death threats. The attack was not random but directly connected to his rejection of their demand to embrace Christianity. The threats to his life and future coercion of his family demonstrate that the harassment was religiously motivated, rooted in animosity toward his Hindu identity. Such intimidation seeks to break the victim’s resistance and force compliance by creating a climate of fear. This deliberate targeting of a Hindu individual with the aim of compelling conversion is a clear example of a religiously motivated hate crime.
Victim Details
Total Victim
1
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 1
- Female 0
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 0
Caste
- SC/ST 0
- OBC 0
- General 0
- Unknown 1
Age Group
- Minor 0
- Adult 1
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Complaint filed
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Christian Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
both
Sources 
