Hindu man in Varanasi offered money to convert to Christianity by organised gang operating across multiple villages

Case ID : d3279af | Location : Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Mon, 23 February, 2026

Case ID : d3279af

Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India

23 February, 2026

Hindu man in Varanasi offered money to convert to Christianity by organised gang operating across multiple villages

Predatory Proselytisation

Conversion/ attempts to convert by inducement

Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination

Pattern of targeting Hindus

Case Summary

A Hindu man named Aman Seth, a resident of the Jansa police station area in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, was targeted by a gang that attempted to convert him to Christianity by offering him a financial inducement of Rs 40,000. The gang had been operating across multiple villages in Varanasi district for an extended period of time, targeting poor and vulnerable Hindu individuals with promises of financial assistance and improved facilities in exchange for religious conversion. Aman Seth was approached by Ajay Kumar, a resident of Kharija Ahmadpur Chandena Koli, Deoband, Saharanpur, who attempted to lure him into converting to Christianity by offering Rs 40,000. As an immediate inducement, he gave Rs 5,000 upfront and promised the remaining Rs 35,000 at a later stage. He had learnt about the Hindu victim through Gulab Singh, who acted as an intermediary. Ajay Kumar was part of an organised gang that had been operating across villages in Varanasi district and surrounding areas for a prolonged period, targeting poor and vulnerable Hindu individuals. The gang visited various villages and misled people by telling them that they would receive financial assistance and better facilities after converting to Christianity. Documents and promotional material related to the conversion activities were recovered from him by the police. Aman Seth filed a written complaint at the Jansa police station following the conversion attempt. Based on his complaint, the police registered a case under the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Act 2021. During the investigation, the police first arrested Vijay Kumar, aged 42, a resident of Gram Paramandapur, Jansa, on 24 January 2026, and sent him to prison. Subsequently, the second perpetrator, Ajay Kumar, aged 40, was also arrested and remanded in judicial custody. Jansa police station in-charge Anil Kumar Sharma confirmed that the search for other perpetrators was ongoing and that no guilty person would be spared. The police were also contacting other potential victims to gather further information, and the roles of other individuals involved in the gang were under investigation. At the time of documenting this incident, officials confirmed that all remaining perpetrators would be arrested shortly.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

The primary category for this case is "Predatory Proselytisation". The sub-category here is Conversion/attempt 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 sub-category this case falls under is "Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination". The tertiary category here is "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 qualified as a hate crime on the basis that an organised gang operating across multiple villages in Varanasi district, Uttar Pradesh, deliberately targeted poor and vulnerable Hindu individuals with financial inducements to convert them to Christianity. The gang’s activities were directed specifically and exclusively at Hindu individuals, exploiting their economic vulnerability and limited awareness to advance a systematic and coordinated religious conversion agenda. The registration of a case under the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Act 2021 and the arrest of two perpetrators confirmed the criminal and predatory nature of the gang’s conversion activities. The gang’s operation in this case represented a textbook example of predatory proselytisation directed specifically at the Hindu community. Rather than engaging in open and honest religious dialogue, the gang identified economically vulnerable Hindu individuals across multiple villages and approached them with carefully crafted promises of financial assistance and improved facilities after conversion. The gang’s systematic identification of poor and vulnerable Hindus as targets, combined with their organised operation across multiple villages over an extended period, reflected a deliberate and coordinated predatory approach to conversion that exploited the economic circumstances of Hindu individuals to advance a religiously motivated agenda. The gang used direct and explicit financial inducements as the primary tool for drawing Hindu individuals towards religious conversion. In the case of Aman Seth, the perpetrator Ajay Kumar offered a total of 40,000 Indian Rupees as a direct financial incentive to convert to Christianity, with 5,000 Indian Rupees paid upfront as an immediate inducement and 35,000 Indian Rupees promised at a later stage. This explicit use of money as a conversion tool reflected a deliberate strategy of exploiting the financial vulnerability of poor Hindu individuals to make religious conversion appear materially attractive. The recovery of documents and promotional material from the perpetrator further confirmed that the financial inducements formed part of a structured and organised conversion programme rather than an isolated individual act. The gang’s approach across multiple villages involved a carefully calculated strategy of manipulation and subtle indoctrination. The perpetrators visited villages, identified vulnerable Hindu individuals, and systematically misled them with promises of financial assistance and improved facilities after conversion. This sustained village-by-village campaign of misleading poor Hindu individuals reflected a deliberate strategy of exploiting their limited awareness and economic vulnerability to draw them towards conversion. The use of an intermediary, Gulab Singh, to identify and introduce potential Hindu targets to the principal perpetrators further demonstrated the organised and calculated nature of the gang’s strategy. The police decision to contact other potential victims following the arrests confirmed that the pattern of targeting extended well beyond the single confirmed victim, Aman Seth, with multiple Hindu individuals across the district having been approached by the gang with financial inducements for conversion. This sustained, and geographically widespread pattern of targeting Hindu individuals confirmed that the gang’s conversion activities were directed specifically and deliberately at the Hindu community. Given that this case met the parameters of a religiously motivated hate crime, it was added to the hate crime database of the Hinduphobia tracker. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records incident dates based on when a crime occurred, or a victim's ordeal began, rather than when the media reported it. In this case, media reports did not state the exact date when the Hindu victim's ordeal began. Therefore, January 24, 2026, the date on which the first perpetrator, Vijay Kumar, was arrested, has been used as the placeholder incident date as it represents the earliest confirmed and documented action taken in response to the victim's ordeal. This was recorded for documentation purposes only. Disclaimer: The perpetrators identified and named in this case are Ajay Kumar, Vijay Kumar, and Gulab Singh. However, police investigations have confirmed that the gang involved in this case had additional members whose identities have not yet been established. Police were actively searching for and conducting raids to apprehend the remaining unidentified perpetrators at the time of reporting. The perpetrator count in this case may therefore be higher than what is currently documented. Disclaimer: The accused gang was operating across multiple villages and targeting numerous poor and vulnerable Hindus through inducements and promises of financial assistance to facilitate religious conversion. This indicates that the activity was not limited to a single individual but formed part of a broader pattern affecting multiple members of the Hindu community. However, Aman Seth is the only specifically identified individual in this case who formally reported being approached, induced, and targeted, and whose complaint led to the registration of an FIR and arrests. Therefore, the victim count has presently been recorded as 1. If additional victims come forward or are formally identified during the investigation, the victim count will be updated accordingly.