Hindu women and children targeted for forced conversions by Christian evangelists in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh

Case ID : d32765c | Location : Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Sun, 7 February, 2021

Case ID : d32765c

Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India

7 February, 2021

Hindu women and children targeted for forced conversions by Christian evangelists in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh

Predatory Proselytisation

Conversion/ attempts to convert by inducement

Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination

Pattern of targeting Hindus

Conversion of minor

Case Summary

In Greater Noida, Hindu women and children were lured by four Christian evangelists to convert to Christianity for over five years. The evangelists, under the guise of prayer meetings and miraculous 'healings', lured the villagers into conversion. According to media reports, the accused Suresh, his wife, sister-in-law and another individual named Chandra Kiran lured Hindu women and children by giving false promises of benefits in converting to Christianity. They claimed that those who convert to Christianity would be “freed from diseases.” They targeted poor families with promises of money, medical treatment, and miraculous healing. For over five years, since 2021, Christian prayer meetings were regularly held in the basement of house number B-224, Block B. Meanwhile, local villagers informed the police. Police arrived at the scene after receiving information about the incident and arrested Suresh Kumar, his wife, sister-in-law and Chandra Kiran in Sector-36, Greater Noida, in the Beta-2 police station area. The accused were caught brainwashing and misleading innocent Hindu villagers, and encouraging them to convert to Christianity. The District President of Hindu Yuva Vahini, Chainpal Pradhan, confirmed that an FIR has been registered in the matter. He stated that, “Prayer meetings were taking place at the house for around five years. After receiving information from local residents, we informed the police. When locals began protesting outside, the organisers attempted to flee but were stopped by residents. During the police raid, around 50 to 70 Hindu women and children were found inside the basement. The police recovered truckloads of religious books, crosses and other Christian material and arrested those involved.” Local residents stated that people from nearby societies were also invited and encouraged to attend the prayer meetings. They were even offered inducements such as money, free medical treatment, and support for children’s education. At the time of writing this report, ACP Greater Noida Arvind Kumar said that police were investigating how many more people were involved in the incident.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category- Predatory Proselytisation. The subcategory selected is- Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination, with the tertiary category being - Conversion of minor 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 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 subcategory 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. This case is a clear instance of an anti-Hindu hate crime because Hindu women and minors were deliberately targeted for religious conversion by the accused under the false pretext of attending prayer meetings. Firstly, the term "prayer meeting" generally implies a spiritual gathering meant for sincere worship and reflection. However, in this situation, the prayer meeting was exploited as a deceptive tool to lure Hindu children and women. Instead of genuine spiritual engagement, the accused manipulated the event to brainwash and indoctrinate these women with Christian theology, aiming to convert them against their will. This deliberate exploitation and targeting of a specific religious group, in this case, Hindus, underlines the religiously motivated nature of this hate crime. The accused actively brainwashed the Hindu victims by convincing them that praying according to the Christian faith and converting to Christianity would bring them supposed benefits, cure their illnesses and solve their life problems. This methodical indoctrination and psychological manipulation represent a predatory strategy designed to undermine the Hindu faith and cultural identity of vulnerable Hindus. Using brainwashing as a conversion tactic reveals a calculated and deeply rooted religious hostility towards the Hindu community. It exploits the insecurities and hardships faced by the victims to forcibly impose another faith, making the conversion process itself an act of religious coercion and animosity. The act of offering incentives like money, free medical treatment, education, and false promises of miraculous healings, especially when directed at vulnerable Hindu women and children, showed that these were not acts of kindness or charity. Instead, they were calculated moves to exploit vulnerable Hindus because of their religion. By providing inducements or promising healing in exchange for conversion, the accused effectively blackmailed those desperate for assistance or hope. Such instances appeared in many cases where Christian missionary groups targeted socially and economically vulnerable Hindus to further their agenda of religious conversions. This form of coercion stripped people of their agency and dignity, resulting in coerced conversions. These were not random or isolated incidents but cases deeply rooted in religious animosity towards Hindu victims. Additionally, the continuation of proselytisation for five consecutive years revealed the structured, organised, and meticulously planned nature of the scheme. Far from being an isolated act, it was a sustained campaign deliberately directed against Hindus, designed to exploit their vulnerabilities over an extended period. The prolonged activity exposed the entrenched hostility of the perpetrators, demonstrating that their intent was not momentary but rooted in a long‑standing objective to weaken Hindu faith and identity and convert several Hindus to Christianity. It is also important to highlight that the victims included minors, which meant 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 lack 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 exemplified the use of coercion and manipulation to achieve religious conversion, it constituted a blatant act of religious hate, making it a religiously motivated crime. Moreover, the recovery of a Christian religious book and other religious materials from the accused’s possession highlights the deliberate and premeditated use of religious texts as tools in the conversion scheme. Employing sacred scriptures from one faith to manipulate, confuse, and sow doubt among followers of another reveals deep-seated religious intolerance and hostility towards Hindus. These calculated attempts to undermine Hindu victims’ faith through indoctrination and manipulation intensify the religiously motivated nature of this crime. It exemplifies an ongoing and targeted effort to assault the religious identity of the Hindu community in a profoundly predatory and hostile way. 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 hate crime against Hindus. Therefore, this case is being added to the Hate Crime database of the Hinduphobia Tracker. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records the dates of incidents based on when the crime occurs rather than when it is reported by the media. However, in this particular case, media reports did not specify the exact date when the crime occurred. It only stated that the conversion activities had been taking place for the past five years. The media reported the incident on 8 February 2026. Therefore, based on this information, an indicative date of 8 February 2021 has been selected as the indicative incident date. This is recorded for documentation purposes only. In this case, media reports stated that 70 Hindu residents were targeted, but no gender‑wise or age‑wise breakdown was provided. For documentation clarity, the Hinduphobia Tracker applied a proportional demographic estimate based on India’s Census 2011 and NFHS‑5 (2019–21) urban population data. Accordingly, the 70 participants were estimated as 34 women (48%) and 14 children (20%). These proportions reflected the typical demographic distribution observed in urban populations, with women forming nearly half of the participants and children comprising one‑fifth.