Hindu man pressured with inducements and threats to embrace Christianity by his newly converted wife and Christian school principal
Gaurela, Chhattisgarh, India 
12 May, 2025
Case Summary
In Bilaspur district, a Hindu man was blackmailed, offered money, and coerced into converting to Christianity by his newly converted Christian wife and Christian school principal, Caroline Mary. Engineer Mayank Pandey, a resident of Bodri in Bilaspur district, filed a complaint involving coercive religious conversion through inducements and threats. Mayank, currently unemployed, was married to Ranjana Pandey on 10 February 2019 in Bilaspur following Hindu customs. Ranjana Pandey works as a teacher at DAV Public School in Kumhari, Gaurela-Pendra-Marwahi (GPM) district of Chhattisgarh. Following marital discord, Ranjana lodged an FIR against Mayank and his parents under the Dowry Prohibition Act. The case is currently under trial in court. On 10 March 2025, during a court hearing, Mayank attempted to reach a mutual settlement with Ranjana. During their conversation, Ranjana told Mayank that she had converted to Christianity under the influence of her school principal, Caroline Mary, and blackmailed him by saying she would only settle the case if he also converted. Ranjana further informed Mayank that Caroline Mary would arrange a job for him and offer him Rs. 50,000 upon conversion, along with Rs. 20,000 for each additional person he brought for conversion. She made it clear that only after fulfilling these conditions would she withdraw the legal case and reconcile. Disturbed by this condition, Mayank refused to convert and reported the matter to the Chakarbhatha police station. He stated that the pressure to convert, coupled with financial inducements, amounted to coercion and violated his religious beliefs. He also mentioned that his wife also converted due to fear of losing her job. Based on the complaint, the police registered a case. As of the date of this report, the case was under investigation.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category of: - Predatory proselytisation. Within it, there are multiple sub-categories selected with first being: 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. The second sub-category selected here is: 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. This case has been added to the tracker as a clear instance of predatory proselytisation, where economic vulnerability, emotional manipulation, and fiduciary influence are exploited to induce religious conversion. A Hindu man was offered ₹50,000 to convert to Christianity by his newly converted Christian wife, who acted on the instructions of Caroline Mary, the Christian evangelical school principal of the DAV Public School in Kumhari. Such offers of monetary inducement for conversion are a classic method of preying upon economically distressed individuals, exploiting their vulnerabilities with promises of financial support, employment, and social security. Furthermore, the wife also used the pending dowry harassment case as a tool to blackmail and threaten her husband, stating that she would only withdraw the case and reconcile if he agreed to convert to Christianity. This form of emotional and legal coercion, combined with financial incentives, constitutes a multifaceted form of harassment and manipulation, deeply rooted in animosity toward the victim’s religious identity. The Christian faith, by its very theological foundations, places a strong emphasis on proselytisation. In pursuit of conversion objectives, Christian evangelists often employ unethical means, ranging from psychological pressure and misinformation to inducements such as money or jobs. These tactics are designed not as acts of charity but as tools to engineer religious change under the guise of social upliftment, particularly among vulnerable and underprivileged communities. The victim, Mayank Pandey, not only refused the offer but also highlighted that his wife herself was coerced into conversion under the threat of job loss. Given the hierarchical power dynamics between a school principal and a subordinate teacher, it is plausible that Caroline Mary exploited this professional relationship to pressure Ranjana Pandey into abandoning her faith. The inducements promised to Mayank strongly suggest that similar offers, including job security and financial incentives, were extended to his wife as well, indicating a pattern of conversion through inducement and manipulation. The case represents a textbook example of predatory proselytisation using inducement, coercion, and grooming, and thus has been documented as a religiously motivated hate crime.
Victim Details
Total Victim
1
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 1
- Female 0
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 0
Caste
- SC/ST 0
- OBC 0
- General 0
- Unknown 1
Age Group
- Minor 0
- Adult 1
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Complaint filed
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Christian Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
female
Sources 
