'Living in Dread': Inside the Hindu Right's Raids on Poor Christians in MP

A mob raids a prayer meet. A complainant appears. A pastor is framed. But what is the truth? Watch our documentary.

'Goal Is To Target Christians': The Truth Behind Forceful Conversion Cases in MP

(Photo: Kamran Akhter/The Quint)

(Be it this documentary, our earlier documentary on misuse of the anti-conversion law in Uttar Pradesh or our stories on attacks during Christmas, The Quint has been at the forefront of exposing hate against Christians. Support our work by becoming a member.)

“I was very depressed. For days, I could not stop thinking about how I was assaulted on Christmas,” said Safalta Kartik. Kartik has been visually-impaired since childhood. Though she cannot see, the day of the attack is an image her mind and body has refused to forget. “The video of my assault went viral, I kept thinking: How will I face this?”

Kartik is referring to 20 December 2025 when the then-BJP Jabalpur District President Anju Bhargava verbally and physically attacked her during a pre-Christmas lunch. The act was captured on camera and met with outrage.

But Kartik’s case is not an isolated one. It tells the story of rising hate crimes against Christians in Madhya Pradesh — who make up less than 1% of the total population in the state (2011 census).

Kartik is not a Christian, she belongs to the Katiya community (SC). Every year, she attended Christmas lunch organised by Pastor Dharmendra Jena. But now Bhargava's words: “You will be born blind in the next life too," echo in her mind repeatedly, she said.

Her case had a ripple effect on the Christian community in Madhya Pradesh. “The entire Masih community lives in fear now,” said Pastor Jena.

The Quint went on ground and travelled through several districts such as Jabalpur and Bhopal to unpack why the attacks against Christians have increased over the years and examine the socio-economic impact these attacks are having.

In this documentary, we also look at how under the ‘forceful conversion’ bid, there are newer ways in which the Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act, 2021 is being misused and ruining lives of Christians in the state.

Kartik is in her final year of B.Ed and aspires to be a teacher for children with special needs. 

Recalling the Christmas event last year, Kartik said, “Bhargava shouted at me and said: 'You brought so many people with you to convert them and you have brought a child with you too.' She held my face tightly so I held her hand like this and then she let her hand go.”

She managed to get an FIR filed, as Pastor Jena also confirmed to us, but nothing has happened in the case so far. However, soon after the incident, Bhargava sent her resignation letter to the BJP. Kartik and Jena have stated that they have got no justice yet.

In fact, we found that Christians often bear the brunt of the law due to cases initiated by Hindutva vigilanties. Nestled in one of the by-lanes in Ranjhi, Jabalpur, is Pastor Manoj Pilley’s house.

But Pastor Manoj has been in Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose jail since October 2025 after being embroiled in an alleged forceful conversion case.

Speaking to The Quint, his wife, Kadambari Pilley could barely hold her tears whenever she spoke about her husband’s incarceration.

“It was my son's death anniversary and my husband wasn't here. When my husband was not here, the police used to come and disturb us a lot. Sometimes late at night, sometimes in the morning. They said such hurtful things that I did not know what to say. Once, they came at 5 in the evening and said that we lied, and that "how do you know that your husband is alive? Your husband has died,” alleged Kadambari, breaking down and wiping her tears off with her dupatta.

Pastor Manoj has a past with Hindutva. He was associated with the Shiv Sena but he had cut ties with the party long ago. After embracing Christianity, he led a simple life, said Kadambari and he drove an auto-rickshaw to help them financially. The auto now stands unused and gathering dust outside their home.

It all began with an encounter with a local Hindutva lawyer Preeti Dhandhariya who on 18 May 2025, barged into the Full Gospel church in Ranjhi and was seen berating the people present for “converting to Christianity.”

In a video accessed by The Quint, Dhandhariya was seen shouting, “You all are hypocrites, you are neither Hindu nor Christian, what do we call you?”

At this gathering, Pastor Manoj got into an argument with Dhandhariya and her team. A month later, an FIR was filed against the Pastor for trying to allegedly “convert Hindus to Christianity.”

But the complainant in his case was another local Neetu Raikwar who alleged that she was lured into Christianity on the promise of her sickness being cured. Interestingly, neither the Pastor nor Kadambari had ever met before or heard of her.

The Quint travelled to the secluded Parshuram Ward near Ranjhi, and found Raikwar’s home. But she was not there. Over a telephonic conversation, Raikwar told us that she has already given her statement to the court and the police and added, “Don’t come to my house, again.”

The locals have alleged that Raikwar filed the complaint on the behest of Dhandhariya but when we spoke to the Hindutva side lawyer, she told us that Raikwar had to come to her after she filed the complaint.

'The Mob Threw Chairs At Worshippers'

In Madhotal area of Jabalpur, Pastor Rajesh Chaudhary recounted with dread the day when a right-wing mob threw chairs over the worshippers and physically assaulted them at a prayer meeting he was conducted.

The Quint has also accessed the CCTV video footage, which showed the mob’s attack. "We live in constant dread now that they (the mob) would come again tomorrow," he said.

"The mob threw chairs, they took out baseball bats and thankfully, they did not break anybody's skull. But they did beat people with those bats. When the women tried to resist, they threw stones at the people and vehicles at the venue."

Pastor Rajesh Chaudhary to The Quint

Pastor Rajesh said that the intimidation did not end there. A few days later, some members of the right-wing group even broke the lock of the gate of his church in the middle of the night.

"On 22 December, around five well-built people came to my home. No one was there, except for my wife. The mob asked about me and my children and threatened her saying, 'we'll kill your family, bring them outside.' My wife told them that nobody was home and she's alone, she told them, 'If you really want to kill someone then kill me, my husband and children are not home.'" 

Pastor Rajesh is not new to these allegations of forceful conversions. He has been acquitted twice before in conversion cases. In both cases, nothing incriminating was found against him. He claims that in both cases, the complainant also confessed to filing the complaint against him under pressure.

Entry of the Dummy' Complainants

The harassment that the Christian community is facing in MP is not only personal but also collective. 

Around 300 kms away from Jabalpur, in Bhopal, we met Pastor Balasaheb Vavle, a Dalit Christian. We found that while Christians as a whole community face the ire of Hindutva groups, Dalit Christians are more frequently accused of forceful conversions.

These are pastors who organise small gatherings in their homes or local churches, bearing their expenses from their own pockets.

Michael Williams, President of United Christian Forum (UCF) told The Quint that Dalit Christians are easy targets. 

“We find that the anger of the young, uncontrolled, brainwashed Hindu mobs is targeted towards the poorest of the poor in attacking them. They are the easiest people to stamp on because nobody will listen to them. Nobody will offer them a chair at the police station to sit and file a complaint."

Among them is Pastor Balasaheb who spent 75 days in jail in what was the first case filed under the anti-conversion law in Bhopal. His wife also spent 22 days in jail with him.

"They beat us, misbehaved with the girls, pushed us and broke down our doors. They picked up our Bible and threw it away. They accused us of giving Rs 50,000 to people to convert. We are poor, how would we have that much money to give people?”

Pastor Balasaheb to The Quint

Pastor Balasaheb’s case also gives us a sense of how the nexus of ‘dummy’ complainants work.

He stated that a stranger walked into his prayer meeting, giving the impression that he was a worshipper and then started recording the prayer on his mobile phone. Shortly after, a mob joined him.

This was corroborated by his lawyer, Vinay James who had succeeded in getting him acquitted in April 2023. 

"Those who complained are still in Bhopal, all the accused. There was one Chandrashekhar Tiwari who, because of this case, got more highlighted. Then he fought a local election and now he is President of Hindu Samiti...he benefited from my case."

The Quint reached out to Tiwari, who said “I have been working since 1992 when I was a Karsevak during the Ayodhya movement, I have caught many ‘love jihad’ and conversion cases even before Bala (Pastor Balasaheb).”

But James told the Quint that when he cross-questioned the complainant, Aakash Prajapati, he confessed to getting the information from the Bajrang Dal and filing the complaint at their behest.

"These are dummies who are fitted to spread false conversion allegations,” noted James.

The Advocate also told us that apart from section 4 of the anti-conversion law (which states that only family members, guardians can file the complaint) there is another section that is being violated frequently: section 3/5 of the law. 

“When a case is filed against any Pastor under 3/5 of the anti-conversion law, a permission has to be sought and added by the concerned Home department, it’s mandatory. But this is not done and the permission is added later after the case is filed against the Pastor.”

Vinay James to The Quint

To further understand the psyche behind the Hindutva ‘activists’ hate campaign against Christians, we met with some Bajrang Dal members namely: Sanjay Tiwari (Gau-Raksha Dal-Bajrang Dal) and Ajay Chaurasiya (Bajrang Dal, Spokesperson) in Jabalpur.

They have their unwavering belief in two things: A) Christians target those who are poor and brainwash them with the prospect of money, job, land and marriage and B) They are standing up for their 'Hindutva' ideology.

On being asked whether they are scared of the law, Chaurasiya said, “We do feel scared but we're doing it for the society, then a little bit we can handle. We have cases against us. But then the police investigates and finds out the truth and our workers are released."

Sanjay chimed in and claimed, “We are working for Hindutva, cows and our women. The administration supports us and they are serious about 'love jihad' or forceful conversions.”

Because of the actions of such groups, several pastors such Pastor Shiv Kumar Jharbade and Pastor Hari Om have faced real-time consequences.

Pastor Jharbade had to sell the home he lived in for 12 years after he was falsely accused of conversion. After Pastor Hari Om and his wife were released from jail, he was made to vacate his shop lest a Bajrang Dal mob attacked it again.

What has also changed in Madhya Pradesh is that now it has become easier to use the threat of ‘forceful conversion’ not just against pastors but also any local Christian.

Like Louis Morris, a journalist and district President of Sarva Isai Mahasabha (All Christian Federation). It was an associate of his, another journalist who threatened him.

"Because my name is Louis, I am a Christian so I'm a soft target. I am also a journalist so I was at an office recently and one individual came and said, 'I will frame you in a conversion case and then you will understand.' I knew him from before. My friend also asked him, 'Who is teaching you all this?' He misbehaved with me and said, 'You don't know, these people do a lot of conversions.'

Despite having gone through a horrifying episode, Kartik said that she won't be scared of any mob when Christmas arrives this year. When I asked her if she would attend the Christmas lunch again, she promptly said, "They (the mob) did what they did. If Pastor Jena organises such a programme again, I will attend again."

(This documentary was reported with the support of the Human Rights and Religious Freedom (HRRF) grant).