Hindu couple pressured to convert to Christianity and participate in religious rituals under false promise of curing illness
Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, India 
31 May, 2024
Case Summary
A group of Christian missionaries in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, coerced a Hindu couple into participating in forced religious rituals and pressured them to convert to Christianity under the false promise of curing their daughter’s illness. On 29 June 2025, the couple, Nikita Yadav and her husband, filed a formal complaint at Adhartal police station. The FIR was registered against five individuals: Preeti, Hariom, Namita Raikwar, Kavita Raikwar, and Nikita Raikwar. The couple recounted that their daughter had fallen seriously ill a year earlier. During that period, they encountered Preeti and Hariom near Nikita’s maternal aunt’s home. The pair convinced the couple to follow them in prayer to Jesus Christ, promising that their daughter’s health would improve through these efforts. They administered suspicious substances described as the “blood of Jesus,” and instructed both parents to consume them. On several occasions, the child was left in their care, and the family was taken to a remote pond near Tilwara for immersion ceremonies that resembled baptism. The couple was twice taken to Punjab without consent, where they were compelled to attend prayer gatherings at Ankur Narula’s church. The Narula-led ministry, based in Jalandhar, is one of Punjab’s largest proselytising organisations, widely known for its aggressive religious agenda masked as faith healing. Throughout this ordeal, the missionaries extracted over ₹2 lakh in cash and jewellery of similar value. When the couple resisted conversion, they were threatened with violence. In the weeks leading up to the FIR, the culprits repeatedly visited the couple’s home, issuing fresh threats. The case was registered under Sections 318(4), 351(2), and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, along with Sections 3 and 5 of the Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act. Members of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal held a protest on 30 June, 2025, outside Adhartal police station. They denounced the use of fraudulent healing and material inducements to convert economically weaker Hindus and called for the immediate arrest of all individuals involved. The police initiated an investigation and promised appropriate legal proceedings.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
The primary category in this case is predatory proselytisation, and the sub-category under this is- Harassment, threats, and 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 in discriminatory grounds, which have the effect of nullifying a person’s rights or infringing upon their freedom to exercise their 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 from Jabalpur illustrates a pattern of religious coercion that cannot be dismissed as merely exploitative or manipulative. The sustained attempt to influence the couple through psychological manipulation, forceful religious participation, and direct threats constitutes a targeted effort to displace their religious identity under duress. The acts of declaring suspicious substances as "the blood of Jesus," the removal of the child for rituals, and the repeated invocation of divine retribution for non-compliance reflect a mode of operation that is both premeditated and rooted in contempt for the victims’ faith. The fact that these acts continued over an extended period, across different locations, including forced travel to Punjab, supports the view that the harassment was systemic. Such cases are not isolated. They belong to a broader and well-established pattern wherein Hindu families, particularly those facing financial or personal hardship, are approached by religious actors promising supernatural cures in exchange for conversion. The promise of medical relief, backed by fraudulent rituals, threats, and material inducement, amounts to a form of religious blackmail. The harassment in this case took verbal, psychological, and spiritual form, with the express intention of making the victims abandon their faith. The use of health crises, such as serious illnesses, to promote religious conversion exploits the vulnerabilities of individuals and their families during times of desperation, making it a clear instance of religiously motivated hate crime, warranting inclusion in the tracker. Disclaimer: Here, it becomes important to note that none of the media reports on this case mention the exact date when the ordeal of the family started; however, it is mentioned that the couple came in contact with the evangelists when their child fell seriously ill one year ago. Since Hinduphobia Tracker records the incident based on when the victim’s ordeal began, not when it was reported, to document this case, we have chosen a date, one year prior to the day when the victim filed a complaint with the police. This date is indicative and has been used as a placeholder to represent the beginning of the sufferings of the victims.
Victim Details
Total Victim
3
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 1
- Female 2
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 0
Caste
- SC/ST 0
- OBC 0
- General 0
- Unknown 3
Age Group
- Minor 1
- Adult 2
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Complaint registered
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Christian Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
both
Sources 
