Hindus targted through covert religious conversion campaigns by Christian missionary couple in Raebareli
Raebareli, Uttar Pradesh, India 
28 June, 2025
Case Summary
In Thana Mill Area in Raebareli district, Uttar Pradesh, two individuals were arrested after they organised a prayer meeting in the locality. During the gathering, local residents observed that the participants were being encouraged to convert to Christianity under the guise of religious prayer. In response, the residents raised an alarm and informed the police. Upon receiving the complaint, a police team from the Mill Area police station arrived at the site and commenced inquiries. Based on initial findings and a formal complaint, a case was filed under the Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Act against Rajesh Kumar Verma, son of Shivlal, and his wife, Soni Verma, both residents of Shivaji Nagar in the same district. The police arrested the couple and initiated legal proceedings. Several other cases of conversion and attempts to convert were reported in this region since early 2025. In February 2025, another case of religious conversion came to light in the same police jurisdiction. A group associated with Christian missionary activity had established a prayer centre in the Sandi Nagin locality. There, around 50 to 60 children were brought daily. According to eyewitness accounts and the complaint received, the children were taught Christian beliefs and encouraged to view Christianity as superior to Sanatan Dharma. Hindu groups alerted authorities, following which police conducted a raid and detained two individuals. In January 2025, a villager named Nanhu Singh from the Harchandpur area filed a complaint stating he had been converted to Christianity a year earlier after being lured with financial incentives. He disclosed that similar inducements were offered to others from surrounding villages, and pressure to recruit more individuals had steadily increased over time.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the tracker in the primary category of predatory proselytisation. The sub-category is: Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation, or subtle indoctrination, and the tertiary category 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 proselytisation, such cases are considered religiously motivated hate crimes. The series of incidents reported from Balapur and the broader Thana Mill Area in Raebareli district reflects a recurring and structured pattern of predatory proselytisation, where Christian missionary-linked individuals were involved in systematic and covert efforts to convert Hindus through grooming, manipulation, and religious indoctrination. In the incident on 19 June, Rajesh Kumar Verma and his wife Soni Verma conducted a prayer meeting dressed in the manner of Christian preachers. According to local residents, the gathering served not as a neutral prayer session but as a setting for inducing conversion to Christianity. The manner of approach, the context of prayer, and the behavioural conduct involved repeated, quiet pressure upon the attendees, especially vulnerable individuals, to abandon their own faith. This form of religious grooming, characterised by the manipulation of emotional and spiritual uncertainty, does not rely on open threats but on sustained, suggestive influence under the pretence of care and healing. The case finds a clear precedent in the February incident from the same jurisdiction, where children were brought daily to a missionary-operated centre and taught to regard Christianity as superior to Sanatan Dharma. A third case in January, where a villager was lured and slowly pressured over time to bring more people into the fold, further illustrates how loyalty, financial vulnerability, and psychological manipulation are jointly employed. The pattern in these incidents demonstrates not one-off misconduct but a sustained strategy aimed specifically at Hindu individuals, exploiting their circumstances and relationships to weaken attachment to their native faith. The underlying religious animosity, although unstated in words, is visible in both conduct and design. Therefore, this case has been rightly categorised under religiously motivated hate crimes.
Case Status
Arrested
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Christian Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
both
Sources 
