Hindu tribals in Khandwa targeted for forced Christian conversion through inducements and manipulation
Khandwa, Madhya Pradesh, India 
7 February, 2026
Case Summary
In Raipur village, located in the Piplod police station area of Khandwa district, Hindu tribals were targeted for forced Christian conversions by three Christian individuals. The victims were lured under the pretext of curing illnesses and exorcising ghosts and spirits. They were also issued material inducements to convert to Christianity. The incident came to light when villagers disrupted a prayer gathering organised at the home of one of the accused on 8 February 2026, leading to a confrontation between the Hindu villagers and the Christian perpetrator groups. Police registered cases against both parties following complaints from each side. The Christian perpetrators were identified as Ramesh Barela, a resident of Kotwara who acted as a pastor, along with two other Christians, Naval Singh and Dashrath Lohar. All three of them visited Raipur village in the tribal area and attempted to convert local families to Christianity. According to the complaint filed by villager Vijay, the three men promised to cure illnesses, remove evil spirits, and solve various problems if the tribal families converted to Christianity. The accused also encouraged people to pray to Lord Jesus and offered inducements, including money, employment opportunities, and assistance with marriages. Villagers stated that Ramesh Barela and his associates had themselves converted to Christianity earlier and now actively worked to convert other tribal families in the village. They stated the accused offered various incentives to lure vulnerable tribal families into changing their religion. Following the incident, both parties approached the Piplod police station. After the investigation, the police registered a case against Ramesh Barela, Naval Singh, and Dashrath Lohar for attempting religious conversion. Station Officer SN Pandey confirmed that the case was filed based on a complaint by villager Vijay. In a counter-complaint, Naval Singh claimed that he and his family members were assaulted by villagers Kishore (son of Santosh), Pawan (son of Bachya), and Pawan's brother Bharat. Police registered a separate case against these three individuals under provisions including assault, criminal intimidation, and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, totalling eight sections. Khandwa in-charge Superintendent of Police Rajesh Raghuvanshi stated that outsiders had repeatedly come to Raipur village attempting to carry out religious conversions. After the dispute, both parties came to the police station, and following an investigation, a case was registered against three Christian individuals for attempting religious conversion. Intelligence agencies were also alerted about the conversion activities in the tribal area.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
The primary category this case qualifies for is "Predatory Proselytisation". The sub-category that this case falls under is "Conversion/attempt to conversion 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 sub-category that this case qualifies for is Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or indoctrination. 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 qualified as a hate crime because Christian perpetrators targeted several Hindu tribals for forced Christian conversion by offering inducements and using manipulative tactics. Firstly, the Christian perpetrators lured vulnerable Hindu tribals into abandoning their ancestral faith through calculated inducements like money, jobs, and marriage arrangements. These were not gestures of kindness but predatory bribes designed to exploit the victims' economic hardships and socio-economic desperation, stripping away their Hindu identity by force. Such arm-twisting tactics turned genuine faith into coerced submission, preying on innocent families' struggles to impose Christianity. This ruthless targeting of Hindu religious identity for coerced conversion marked it unmistakably as a hate crime driven by religious animosity. The perpetrators further dangled false promises of curing diseases and exorcising evil spirits, cynically exploiting the tribals' health crises and spiritual fears to push Christian conversion. Families gripped by illness or haunted by superstition found their pain weaponised as these perpetrators claimed Jesus alone could heal them, shattering trust in their own Hindu traditions. This manipulation went beyond mere inducement; it was heartless psychological coercion that preyed on human suffering to dismantle Hindu beliefs. Such devious tactics exposed a religiously motivated hate crime aimed at breaking the spirit of vulnerable Hindu communities. The Christian perpetrators also coerced Hindu victims into praying to Jesus, aggressively pressuring them to renounce their faith and sacred rituals in favour of alien worship. This forceful imposition represented a brutal assault on Hindu devotional life, where families who cherished their gods faced relentless manipulation to betray their roots. By dictating foreign prayers over cherished Hindu practices, the perpetrators revealed deep-seated religious animosity, intent on erasing Hindu identity through spiritual domination. This coercive reprogramming of faith constituted a textbook religiously motivated hate crime against the Hindu community. Given that this case met the parameters of a hate crime, it was added to the hate crime database of the Hinduphobia Tracker.
Case Status
Complaint registered
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Christian Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
