Minor Hindu boy indoctrinated to convert to Christianity by female teacher and pastor at Missionary school in Jabalpur
Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, India 
7 December, 2025
Case Summary
Satyanarayan Sharma, a former teacher from Jabalpur, filed a police complaint stating that his younger son, Neelam Sharma, was being pressured by a teacher and a priest from his school to convert to Christianity. According to Satyanarayan, his son had begun attending church after coming into contact with a teacher named Palak Singh at St. Xavier School. He claimed that his son’s behaviour changed suddenly, and Neelam started saying that Christianity was the true religion. The father noted that when the family opposed this change in his son’s beliefs, Neelam became aggressive, even leading to physical confrontations at home. In the course of this pressure to convert, Neelam destroyed Hindu idols and religious images at home and also attempted to break down doors, repeatedly insisting that he wanted to embrace Christianity. The complaint was filed at the Adhartal police station, where the police have begun an investigation. The police are gathering statements from the family, school, and others involved. Local organisations, such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, have expressed concern over the allegations of religious influence and have demanded strong action. The case has raised significant concern within the community.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category: Predatory Proselytisation. The first subcategory selected is: Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation, or subtle indoctrination. Under this, the tertiary category selected is: Conversion of Minor. 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 that 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 the 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 proselytisation, such cases are considered religiously motivated hate crimes. The first subcategory selected is: Attempting to convert/ converting by denigrating Hinduism. In several cases, Hindus are converted, or an attempt is made to convert Hindus by denigrating their faith, Hinduism. In such cases, the Hindus associate with the non-Hindu perpetrators often by choice and then the attempt to convert them by insulting their faith, showing the faith down, etc, begins. An example of this would be a non-Hindu gathering where the Hindus are attending the gathering of their own free will. However, once they attend the gathering, there is an explicit attempt to convert them by abusing their faith and hailing the faith of the perpetrator. The denigration of the Hindu faith is often based on misrepresentation of the Hindu faith, its doctrine and scriptures and insult to espoused traditions, if not blatant lies about Hindu beliefs and ways. Such conversions or attempts at conversions are driven by animosity towards the Hindu faith and are therefore documented as religiously motivated hate crimes. Here, the Christian pastor and a school teacher attempted to convert a Hindu student by denigrating Sanatan Dharma to convince the kids that Christianity was superior and the only true religion. The accused's actions were aimed at undermining the religious beliefs of the minor Hindu boy by portraying their faith as false. By doing this, the pastor not only disrespected Hinduism but also attempted to erode the religious identity of the student. This is an intentional act of religious discrimination aimed at diminishing the value of another faith. Also, in this case, it's important to highlight that the Hindu victim was a minor student at the Missionary school when grooming started. In minors, the element of consent and genuine change of conscience is missing ab initio. Minors, due to their young age and lack of maturity, are particularly vulnerable to manipulation and coercion. They may not have the ability to fully understand the implications of converting to another religion, and the Christian perpetrators purposely targeted and exploited this vulnerability of the Hindu victims. Since this case exemplifies the use of coercion and manipulation to achieve religious conversion, it is a blatant act of religious hate, making it a religiously motivated crime. Subtle manipulation tactics can be difficult to detect, especially when they are employed by trusted authority figures in positions of influence. This makes it challenging for parents to identify and address instances of religious manipulation in schools. Since the underlying offence in this case is against a minor student and involves subtle tactics of indoctrination, which obviously stems from a bias against the Hindu faith, this case has been documented as a hate crime. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records incidents based on when an event occurred or when the victim's ordeal began. It is important to clarify that none of the media sources covering this case has specified the exact date when the manipulation for conversion began. Therefore, for documentation purposes, we have recorded the date based on when the incident was reported in the media: 8th December 2025.
Victim Details
Total Victim
1
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 1
- Female 0
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 0
Caste
- SC/ST 0
- OBC 0
- General 1
- Unknown 0
Age Group
- Minor 1
- Adult 0
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Complaint filed
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Christian Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
both
Sources 
