Attacks on Christians in India highest in 2022: UP, tops list of most attacks; Chhattisgarh follows
Tamil Nadu, Karnataka top among South Indian states
New Delhi: A survey conducted by the United Christian Forum (UCF) has concluded that the violence against Christians in India peaked in the year 2022. The survey has also revealed most cases of this violence were reported in Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
According to the findings released on November 26, until November 21 this year, there were about 511 cases of violence that were reported against the Christians in the country. The numbers are slightly more than the 505 cases of violence against the community that were reported in 2021.
The report is based on the information collected by the UCF helpline, a toll-free number that was launched in January 2015 to help victims get access to legal remedies. The report has also compiled incidents that include disruption of prayers, attacks on Christians, pastors, and their kin as well as vandalization of churches.
A closer look into the findings of the UCF in the last five years shows that cases of violence against Christians are on the rise. While the number of cases in 2018 were plugged at 292, it went up to 328 in 2019. In 2020 the numbers saw a slight dip as 279 cases were reported during the COVID-imposed lockdown, the number nearly doubled up in 2021 when the country reported 505 cases followed by 511 in 2022 with one month to spare.
September reported the highest number of instances of violence against Christians this year (64). May also recorded 61 such cases.
Among the states with highest number of cases was Uttar Pradesh, with 149 cases this year followed by Chhattisgarh with 115 incidents, and Jharkhand with 48. Among the states that recorded the lowest number of such instances was Jammy Kashmir where only one case of violence against Christians was reported. Chandigarh had only one case in five years, the incident being recorded in 2019.
Among the Northeastern states, Meghalaya and Tripura had one incident each of such violence, while Assam had two.
The survey on South Indian states showed Karnataka and Tamil Nadu recording 30 incidents of violence against Christians each. In contrast, Kerala and Puducherry had no cases of attack on Christians.
This year, Andhra Pradesh had six cases, and Telangana had four. The survey showed that except in 2019, when it recorded 19 such cases, Andhra Pradesh recorded single-digit incidents in the five-year span. There were five attacks on Christians in Andhra Pradesh in 2018, eight in 2020, and six in 2022.
Telangana witnessed a fall in attack cases, from 19 in 2018 and 18 in 2019 to six, three, and four in 2020, 2021, and 2022, respectively, as per the UCF survey.
Tamil Nadu recorded 227 such cases between 2014 and 2022, with the Kongu region reporting 117 cases, which is nearly half the number of incidents of attacks on Christians. Also, while there were 48 attacks in 2018, the highest number recorded was in 2019, at 56. There were 17 and 21 cases in 2020 and 2021, respectively.
There were only three incidents of violence against Christians in Kerala in the last five years – one in 2018, and two in 2019.
Karnataka witnessed a decline in violence against Christians this year, with 30, as compared to 2021, when the state had 62 cases, which is also the highest in the South Indian states. In five years, the state had eight cases in 2018, 27 in 2019, and 16 in 2020, respectively.
Cases of such violence rose greatly in Karnataka during Christmas in 2021. A group of Hindutva vigilantes forced themselves into a Dalit household in Tumakuru to stop them from celebrating the festival. The next day, another group attacked a Dalit family in the Tukkanatti village of Belagavi, after accusing them of converting their neighbors to Christianity.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
High courts upheld only 8 per cent of death sentences; SC confirms none in recent years: Report
New Delhi (PTI): Highlighting that a high acquittal rate of death row convicts by the Supreme Court and high courts demonstrates a pattern of "erroneous or unjustified convictions", a study of 10 years of death penalty data has revealed that the top court did not confirm any death sentences in recent years.
The study by Square Circle Clinic, a criminal laws advocacy group with the NALSAR University of Law in Hyderabad, found that an overwhelming majority of death sentences imposed by trial courts did not withstand scrutiny at higher judicial levels. Acquittals far outnumbered confirmations at both the high courts and Supreme Court levels.
According to the report, the trial courts across India awarded 1,310 death sentences in 822 cases between 2016 and 2025. High courts considered 842 of these sentences in confirmation proceedings but upheld only 70 or 8.31 per cent.
In contrast, 258 death sentences (30.64 per cent) resulted in acquittals. The study noted that the acquittal rate at the high court level was nearly four times the confirmation rate.
Data showed that of the 70 death sentences confirmed by high courts, the Supreme Court decided 38 and did not uphold a single one. The apex court has confirmed no death sentences between 2023 and 2025.
"Wrongful or erroneous or unjustified convictions, then, are not random or freak accidents in the Indian criminal justice system. The data indicates they are a persistent and serious systemic concern," the report said.
Over the last decade, high courts adjudicated 1,085 death sentences in 647 cases, confirming only 106 (9.77 per cent). During this period, 326 persons in 191 cases, were acquitted.
The report attributed low confirmation rates to the appellate judiciary’s concerns regarding failures in due process. "This coincides with increased Supreme Court scrutiny of safeguards at the sentencing stage," the report said.
Of the 153 death sentences decided by the apex court over the last decade, the accused were acquitted in 38 cases. In 2025 alone, high courts overturned death sentences into acquittals in 22 out of 85 cases (over 25 per cent). The same year, Supreme Court acquitted accused persons in more than half of the death penalty cases it decided (10 out of 19), the report said.
The study highlighted that 364 persons who were ultimately acquitted "should not even have been convicted and unjustifiably suffered the trauma of death row". It added that such failures extend beyond adjudication and reflect serious lapses in investigation and prosecution.
The question of remedies for wrongful convictions remains pending before the Supreme Court. In September 2025, three persons acquitted by the apex court filed writ petitions seeking compensation from the state and argued that their wrongful convictions violated their fundamental right to life and liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution.
"In 2022, the Supreme Court crystallised a sentencing process in Manoj v. State of Madhya Pradesh , and mandated all courts to follow those guidelines before imposing or confirming a death sentence," the report read.
In 2025, the apex court held in Vasanta Sampat Dupare v. Union of India that death penalty sentencing hearings form part of the right to a fair trial and stressed that capital punishment can be imposed only after a constitutionally compliant sentencing process.
"However, even at the high courts whether the process mandated under Manoj is being complied with is in doubt,” the report said.
