Hindu villagers targeted by Christian missionaries, lured with money for religious conversion
Mahrajganj, Uttar Pradesh, India 
14 March, 2025
Case Summary
In Beniganj village, located in the Maharajganj district of Uttar Pradesh, Hindu residents were lured and converted to Christianity by members of Christian missionary groups. According to media reports, missionaries persuaded local Hindus to convert by offering financial incentives. The individuals involved in the conversion activities were identified as Nagendra Singh, Ramesh Kumar, Imirati Devi, Radha, and several others. Upon receiving information about the incident, members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) reached the location and alerted the police. A local Hindu man, Arvind Singh, filed a written complaint at the police station detailing the unlawful conversions. Police registered a case under Section 3/5(1) of the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021. Inspector Nirbhay Kumar Singh confirmed that officers arrived promptly, arrested three of the accused, and assured that efforts are underway to apprehend the remaining suspects.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the tracker under the prime category- Predatory Proselytisation. The sub-category relevant in this case 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. The other sub-category selected is - 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. This case reflects systematic and targeted attempts by Christian missionaries to gradually alienate Hindu villagers from their faith, using subtle persuasion rather than overt violence. These conversions are not driven by individual spiritual choice, but by calculated indoctrination. This slow erosion of the victim’s religious convictions and imposition of a competing faith amounts to hostility toward Hinduism, making it a religiously motivated hate crime. Offering money or material benefits in exchange for changing one’s faith exploits economic distress to destroy religious conviction. In this case, financially vulnerable Hindus were deliberately targeted, not for humanitarian help, but for religious conversion, treating their Hindu identity as an obstacle to be removed. The inducements are not neutral acts of charity but instruments of religious aggression designed to sever the victim from their ancestral dharma. The very intent behind the inducement is to uproot Hinduism from their lives, which is what qualifies it as a hate crime against Hindus.
Case Status
Case sub-judice
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Christian Extremists
Perpetrators Range
Unknown
Perpetrators Gender
both
Sources 
