Case Summary

In Ghazipur, Uttar Pradesh, a Hindu woman named Sheela Devi was deceived and coerced into religious conversion by a Muslim couple. The victim, Sheela Devi, is a widow, originally from Rajapur village, and had relocated to Chandrakali Colony in Peer Nagar, Ghazipur, where she ran a small tea and tailoring shop to support her children. A few years ago, Sheela suffered from a prolonged illness. Due to her illness, local residents advised her to go to a woman exorcist named Shanti Devi, known for performing exorcisms and spiritual healing (jhaad-phoonk). The woman, Shanti Devi, gradually built a relationship with Sheela and gained her trust. Over time, they became friends. In June 2018, Shanti Devi and her husband, Surendra Ram, a municipal tax collector in Ghazipur, proposed buying land jointly with the victim in the Bakuliyapur area. The victim agreed, but the duo deceived her by getting the land registered in a single document, rather than split into two separate deeds. When Sheela asked for a copy of the registry papers, the duo kept on evading the question by first getting the boundary constructed and then the gate. Sheela was made to stay in that land by putting a tin shed at the back. Sheela thought of opening a tea shop on the piece of land to earn her living. But before that, Shanti Devi constructed a mazar (mausoleum) at the front part of the land. Sheela was shocked to discover the mazar on her land. When confronted, Shanti Devi and her husband initially offered to buy Sheela’s share of the land for Rs. 25 lakh, promising to pay her in two years. However, even after two years, no payment was made. When Sheela Devi asked for either her share of the land or the money, the duo started threatening her and intimidating her. On January 24, 2025, Sheela again visited their home to ask for money; however, Shanti Devi and Surendra Ram started pressuring her to convert to Islam. They also said that after converting, she can open a shop at the mazar and serve the shrine by selling items like chadars, incense sticks, and flowers. They also put a condition that if she refused to do so, she would need to give them Rs. 10 lakh as compensation for the land. Furthermore, Surendra Ram also threatened to implicate the victim in a false case if she refused to comply or decided to take any action against them. Sheela Devi then approached the police and filed a formal complaint. As of the date of writing this report, an FIR was registered by the police and the investigation was ongoing.

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Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category of: - Predatory Proselytisation. Within it, the sub-category selected: - 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. The second sub-category relevant here is: - Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle 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 has been added to the tracker because a Hindu woman was deceived, emotionally manipulated, and later coerced to convert to Islam by a Muslim couple. The victim was first introduced to Shanti Devi during a period of illness and distress. Shanti Devi presented herself as a healer practising jhaad-phoonk or spiritual healing. As Sheela stated in the FIR, “मैं भी सोची की एक बार मैं भी दुआ करवा लुंगी... शान्ति देवी ने कहा शीला तुम रोज आना तुमको मैं ठीक कर दूंगी (“I thought I’d go once and get a prayer done... Shanti Devi said, Sheela, you come every day—I’ll cure you.”) reflecting the initial grooming process rooted in trust and perceived spiritual healing. This was the initial process of grooming, where trust is built with the victim only to convert or exploit the victim later. This trust was exploited when the Muslim couple persuaded her to jointly purchase land. However, the registry was done under their control, and they later constructed a mazar on the property to assert exclusive religious presence. The construction of a mazar was an act of asserting religious control over the land and a way to subtly build pressure on the victim and send a message that she had already lost her land. They further coerced her into religious conversion and asked for Rs. 10 lakhs if she wanted her land. This coercion not only reveals an attempt at forced conversion but also reflects the systematic use of her economic vulnerability and spiritual trust as tools for proselytisation. This manipulation and coercion stem from deep-seated doctrinal hostility towards the victim’s religious identity. Abrahamic faiths believe that any non-adherent to their faith is subject to being exploited till they convert. Since such acts are motivated by religious bias and involve coercive tactics aimed at forced conversion of the victim, this case is documented as a religiously motivated hate crime grounded in predatory proselytisation. Disclaimer: In this case, the victim’s ordeal began when she came to the accused for her illness, though no exact date or month is mentioned. The only exact date mentioned is the date of buying the land, which took place on June 16, 2018. Therefore, for the purposes of documentation, June 16, 2018, has been used as the indicative starting point of the victim’s ordeal. Although media coverage of the incident surfaced on June 21, 2025, the Hinduphobia Tracker records incidents based on when the victim’s suffering began, not when it was reported.