Hindus targeted for forced religious conversions through inducements and false promises of curing diseases

Case ID : d3270fd | Location : Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Tue, 12 January, 2016

Case ID : d3270fd

Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India

12 January, 2016

Hindus targeted for forced religious conversions through inducements and false promises of curing diseases

Predatory Proselytisation

Conversion/ attempts to convert by inducement

Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination

Victim says was brainwashed/groomed

Pattern of targeting Hindus

Case Summary

In Ghatampur, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, Hindu residents were targeted for forced Christian conversions by a pastor named Alvin. The accused lured people with financial gains and promises of miraculous cures from diseases. The accused Alvin lured and misled people by offering money and stating that his god possessed the power to cure even fatal diseases such as cancer. Following complaints from locals, Bajrang Dal activists arrived at the accused's home in Nauranga on 13 January 2026 and found a 'healing' ceremony underway. They filmed the scene and informed the police. Police then arrived and arrested Alvin. He claimed that he healed an elderly woman with prayers. Police interrogation revealed that Alvin was originally from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. Police recovered files, important documents, and a large quantity of promotional material from him. A register was also found during the investigation in which the details of about a hundred people were listed. A case was filed against Alvin based on a written complaint by Mukesh Kumar, a resident of Jehanabad. In the complaint, it was stated that Alvin lured people into converting to Christianity by offering financial inducements. Locals in Nauranga stated that Alvin moved to the town with his family ten years ago. Initially, he lived on rent, and later, in 2022, he purchased land and built his own house. He was not employed or engaged in any business. Even after this, Alvin lived a luxurious life. Without any income, there was a possibility that he received funding from outside to run his family and build the house. He conducted prayer meetings in house churches in the villages. Prayer meetings were also held at his house every Sunday, where a large number of people gathered. Another Hindu man, Akash Paswan, a resident of Afzalpur village in Bidhannu police station area, stated that Pastor Alvin met him in Ramaipur. He said, "As soon as he (Alvin) saw me, he said, 'You are very troubled. If you want to get rid of all your problems, then come to Nauranga.'" After this, when he reached Nauranga town, the pastor gave him the Bible to read. He was then told to leave Hinduism and come to the shelter of Jesus. In return, he would be given money and married off. Paswan added that he was also lured with a promise of one thousand rupees per day to convert to Christianity. Alvin’s wife and Sankutala, a resident of Madepur, along with a large number of people, reached the Ghatampur police station on 14 January 2026 and made allegations against the workers of Bajrang Dal, claiming that they assaulted them. At the time of writing this report, the case is under investigation.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been documented under the primary category: Predatory Proselytisation. Under this, the selected secondary 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. Another selected secondary category is: Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation, or subtle indoctrination. Under this, the selected tertiary categories are: 'Victim says brainwashed or groomed' and 'Pattern of targeting Hindus'. 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 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 proselytization, such cases are considered religiously motivated hate crimes. This case stands as a blatant instance of a religiously motivated hate crime for the compelling reasons stated below: First, the Christian accused lured Hindu victims with material and financial inducements such as money and promises of marriage. These tactics exposed the cold calculation behind the actions, preying on desperate Hindus in moments of need. Far from acts of kindness, they amounted to emotional blackmail, stripping vulnerable people of their dignity and forcing them to abandon their faith. Christian missionary groups have long targeted poor and struggling Hindus this way, eroding their agency through coercion. Such acts are no random encounters but deliberate assaults on Hindu identity, driven by deep animosity towards Hindus and their beliefs. Furthermore, the accused preyed on sick Hindus by falsely promising cures for diseases like cancer in exchange for conversion. This cruel manipulation twisted their pain into a weapon, arm-twisting families already broken by illness. By staging fake healing sessions, he stripped suffering Hindus of their faith, exposing the raw hatred fuelling his scheme. Vulnerable patients, clinging to hope, became pawns in his religiously charged offensive. Furthermore, one victim recounted how the accused thrust a Bible upon him, manipulating him to renounce Hinduism for Christianity. These insidious tactics laid bare the perpetrators' contempt for Hindus. Wielding one faith's scriptures to sow doubt and dismantle another's beliefs inflicted profound spiritual violence on trusting individuals. This systematic betrayal went beyond evangelism; it formed part of an organised crusade to erase Hindu identity through deceit and manipulation. Furthermore, the accused ran conversion events and prayer meetings every Sunday for almost 10 years. This relentless targeting battered Hindus with incentives and psychological pressure, shattering their cultural and spiritual foundations. Victims faced unending coercion, their lives upended by those bent on wiping out their heritage. The pattern screamed of calculated hatred: profiling Hindus, exploiting their hardships, and methodically dismantling their faith in a brazen attack on the community's soul. These instances of targeted proselytisation activities stem from inherent hostility towards the victims' professed faith since Abrahamic faiths believe that any non-adherent to their faith is subject to being dehumanised till they convert, making it a religiously motivated crime against Hindus. Therefore, this case is being added to the hate crime database of the Hinduphobia Tracker. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records incident dates based on when a victim's ordeal begins, rather than when the media reports it. In this case, the reports state that the accused began conducting prayer meetings when he came to the village ten years ago. The accused was arrested on 13 January 2026. Henceforth, based on both these informations, an indicative date of 13 January 2016 has been selected as the date of the incident. This marks an estimated beginning of when the Hindu residents' ordeal began. Media reports confirmed that several Hindu villagers were targeted for forced conversion, though they named only one victim: Akash Paswan. Therefore, for documentation purposes, a conservative victim count of 1 has been selected.