Hindu man and his children targeted for forced religious conversion by their Christian relatives in Madhya Pradesh

Case ID : d326f56 | Location : Ashoknagar, Madhya Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Thu, 8 May, 2025

Case ID : d326f56

Ashoknagar, Madhya Pradesh, India

8 May, 2025

Hindu man and his children targeted for forced religious conversion by their Christian relatives in Madhya Pradesh

Predatory Proselytisation

Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination

Conversion of minor

Conversion/ attempts to convert by inducement

Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion

Case Summary

In the Chanderi town of Ashoknagar district, Madhya Pradesh, a Hindu man, Akhilesh Koli, and his two minor children were offered inducements and pressured for religious conversion by their Christian relatives. According to reports, the victim, Akhilesh, filed a complaint with the police stating that his wife, Janaki, and their two minor sons, Priyansh (15) and Anurag (13), were brainwashed and converted from Hinduism to Christianity through sustained inducement and psychological pressure by close relatives. He stated that his relatives, Mini Koli and Raksha Koli, had converted to Christianity about 7-8 months ago, after which they approached his family. They maintained frequent contact with his wife, Janaki, through mobile conversations and online religious meetings, during which she and the children were repeatedly urged to abandon Hinduism and adopt Christianity. Even a pastor named Rajesh helped the accused, Mini and Raksha, in carrying out this conversion effort. Over time, they brainwashed and converted his wife, Janaki, and his two minor sons, Priyansh (15) and Anurag (13), to Christianity, who stopped practising Hindu traditions and began following Christian customs. The perpetrators also offered financial benefits, promising financial assistance and other benefits from various organisations if Akhilesh also converted to Christianity. Due to this inducement and mental pressure, Akhilesh's wife and children began pressuring him to convert. This led to severe domestic discord and mental distress for him. Subsequently, Akhilesh first approached the Superintendent of Police and lodged a formal complaint at Chanderi police station. Acting on his complaint, the police registered an FIR against Mini Koli, Raksha Koli and a pastor named Rajesh under the Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act, 2021, which criminalises religious conversion through inducement, coercion or fraud. The police initiated an investigation into the incident to identify the wider network involved and to determine whether other families had been similarly targeted through coordinated outreach, phone calls and online religious meetings.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category- Predatory proselytisation. Within it, the sub-category selected is - Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination. 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 which 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 other 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 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 case has been added to the tracker because a Hindu man and his two minor children were offered inducements and pressured for religious conversion by their Christian relatives. The victims were subjected to sustained inducements, psychological pressure and coercive tactics in an effort to alter their religious identity. Firstly, the Christian relatives first approached the Hindu family and maintained frequent and prolonged contact, particularly with the wife, Janaki, through mobile conversations and online religious meetings. During these interactions, Janaki and the children were repeatedly urged to abandon Hinduism and adopt Christianity. Through continuous exposure to online religious sessions and persistent messaging, the victims were gradually influenced to disengage from Hindu religious practices and adopt Christian customs. This sustained pattern of interaction reflected a calculated process of grooming, wherein familiarity and trust were cultivated with the clear objective of facilitating religious conversion. Secondly, it is important to note here that the two children who were converted were minors, which means the element of consent and genuine change of conscience was 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 victim. Since this case exemplifies the use of coercion and manipulation to achieve religious conversion, it is a blatant act of religious hate. Such acts are not merely criminal in nature; they are ideologically charged, revealing religious prejudice and a calculated intent to alter the religious identity of a minor without their volition. The use of grooming, where trust is built only to exploit, is an insidious method that exploits the child’s naivety and dependence. Thirdly, the Hindu man, Akhilesh Koli, revealed that the perpetrators also offered inducements, promising financial assistance and other benefits, in order to convert him to Christianity. Offering incentives or making false promises, especially when directed at vulnerable individuals in need, shows that these incentives are not acts of kindness or charity. Instead, they are calculated moves to exploit vulnerable Hindus because of their religion. By providing inducements or promising healing in exchange for conversion, the accused were effectively blackmailing those who might have been desperate for assistance or hope. Such instances are seen in many cases where members of Christian missionary groups target socially and economically vulnerable Hindus to further their agenda of religious conversions. This form of coercion strips people of their agency and dignity and results in coerced conversions. These are not random or isolated incidents, but rather cases deeply rooted in religious animosity towards the Hindu victims and their religious identity. Fourth, when inducements failed to secure Akhilesh’s conversion, the pressure intensified, with continued efforts to compel him to abandon his Hindu faith. Pressuring a Hindu individual to discard his religious faith and embrace another was a direct attack on his religious identity and dignity. It was not a matter of personal choice; it was coercion rooted in hostility towards the victim's Hindu identity. Such an attempt reflects religious animosity because the act was not simply about personal differences but about erasing the victim’s Hindu faith, making it a religiously motivated crime. The Christian faith, by its very theological foundations, places a strong emphasis on proselytisation. In pursuit of conversion objectives, Christian evangelists often employ unethical means, ranging from psychological pressure and misinformation to inducements such as money or jobs. This systematic attempt to erode the religious foundation of Hindu individuals and replace it with allegiance to another faith reflects deep religious malice and animus against the Hindu identity. Because the core motivation of the act stems from hostility toward the victims' religion, it meets the threshold of a hate crime. Hence, it is being recorded in the hate crime database of the Hinduphobia Tracker. Disclaimer: While the Hinduphobia Tracker recognises that Janaki was subjected to sustained influence that resulted in her conversion to Christianity, it is important to acknowledge that she was an adult at the time and was legally entitled to make her own decisions, including with respect to converting her religion. However, this does not imply the absence of deception or manipulation. Furthermore, in the absence of her statement, she has not been categorised as a victim for the purposes of this database. It is further noted that following her conversion, Janaki exerted pressure on her husband, Akhilesh Koli, to convert as well. Accordingly, the victim count has been recorded as three, comprising Akhilesh Koli and his two minor sons. The children were minors at the time of conversion and, therefore, lacked the legal capacity to provide informed consent, rendering their conversion inherently coercive in nature. Since Akhilesh's wife Janaki also joined the Christian perpetrators in carrying out the forced conversion, the perpetrator count is recorded as four (4), referring to Janaki, Rajesh, Raksha, and Mini. It is important to clarify that none of the media sources covering this case have specified the exact date when the victim's ordeal began, though it is mentioned that the Hindu family came into contact with the accused 7-8 months ago. Thus, to document this case, we have used an indicative date, 9 May 2025, as a placeholder to represent the beginning of their suffering. While media coverage of the incident emerged on 9 January 2026, the Hinduphobia Tracker records the incident based on when the victims' ordeal began, not when it was reported by the media.