Forced religious conversion dispute in Arnia sparks communal tension in Jammu and Kashmir

Case ID : d326de9 | Location : Jammu and Kashmir, India | Date of Incident : Tue, 23 December, 2025

Case ID : d326de9

Jammu and Kashmir, India

23 December, 2025

Forced religious conversion dispute in Arnia sparks communal tension in Jammu and Kashmir

Predatory Proselytisation

Conversion/ attempts to convert by inducement

Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion

Case Summary

In Baispur Parlah, Sector Arnia, Jammu and Kashmir, Babi Jacob, a Christian woman, attempted to convert a Hindu man, named Gaurav Singh, by offering monetary inducements. Gaurav Singh also stated that his refusal to accede to the conversion demands resulted in an FIR against him, where the accused Babi Jacob accused him of assaulting her. As per reports, on 24 December 2025, a Christian, Babi Jacob, daughter of Ouscph Chaco, resident of Kerala, pressured a Hindu, namely, Gaurav Singh, son of Ajit Singh, resident of Baispur Parlah, for religious conversion with a monetary offer of ₹500,000 to be paid if he converted. Gaurav Singh refused the offer. This disagreement escalated into heated arguments between the two, and during that, the Christian extremist also targeted and maligned the Hindu community in the area. This dispute was, however, resolved by the police temporarily on-site. Despite this, on the night of 30-31 December, Babi Jacob lodged a formal complaint against Gaurav Singh, in which she accused him of attempted assault and harassment. At the time was documenting the case, the Police were investigating it to find verifiable evidence and had urged the public to maintain peace and allow the legal process to proceed without interference.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

The primary category selected is Predatory Proselytisation. 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 other sub-category selected here 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. This incident qualifies as a religiously motivated hate crime under predatory proselytisation because the accused deliberately targeted a Hindu man on the basis of his religious identity and attempted to induce him to abandon his faith through monetary incentive. The offer of a large sum of money was not incidental assistance but a conditional inducement explicitly linked to religious conversion, indicating intent to interfere with the victim’s freedom of belief. The conduct escalated beyond inducement into harassment and coercion once the victim refused to convert. Following the refusal, the accused allegedly engaged in heated arguments and made derogatory remarks targeting the Hindu community in the area. Such behaviour reflects hostility toward Hindu identity and demonstrates that the objective was not dialogue or voluntary persuasion but pressure and intimidation aimed at securing conversion. The filing of a criminal complaint against the Hindu victim after his refusal further establishes coercive intent. The allegation of assault, made subsequent to the failed conversion attempt, functioned as a retaliatory measure that placed the victim under legal and psychological pressure. This sequence of inducement followed by criminal accusation reflects a pattern where refusal to convert is met with harassment and misuse of legal processes to compel compliance or punish resistance. Predatory proselytisation is characterised by the exploitation of power imbalances, inducements, and threats to force or manipulate religious change. In this case, the use of financial incentive, followed by intimidation and the initiation of police action against the victim, aligns squarely with this pattern. The actions were directed specifically at a Hindu individual because of his religious identity and sought to undermine that identity through coercive means rather than voluntary belief. Such actions stem from inherent hostility towards the victim's professed faith, since Abrahamic faiths hold beliefs that devalue non-adherents until conversion occurs. This systematic attempt to erode the religious foundation of individuals and replace it with allegiance to another faith reflected deep religious malice and animus against Hindu identity. Because the core motivation of the act stemmed from hostility towards the victim’s religion, it met the threshold of a hate crime and was therefore categorised as such in the database. 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 victim's ordeal began. Therefore, for documentation purposes, we have recorded the date based on when the incident was reported in the media, 24th December 2025.