A day after his arrest in the neighbouring Raigad district, a Thane court on Monday granted transit remand to Shahnawaz Khan, alias Baddo, the prime accused in the case involving ‘conversion case through gaming app’, and ordered that he be produced before a Ghaziabad Court within three days.
After the Thane court granted transit remand of the prime accused in the UP App-based conversion case, the Mumbra police from Thane district handed over Shahnawaz Khan to a 4-man team of the Ghaziabad police that was camping at Thane for the past six days.
Working in tandem with their counterparts from Ghaziabad, the Mumbra police tracked down Shahnawaz Khan at a lodge at Alibaug in the neighbouring Raigad district.
During the raid the Thane and Ghaziabad police conducted raids on a lodge at Alibaug and found the accused in a room along with his brother. The police have recovered iPad and other gadgets which were purportedly used in conversions. Khan, who used to target children for conversion through a gaming App ‘Fortnite’, had been absconding for several days since the alleged conversion racket broke in Uttar Pradesh.
Following complaints of alleged conversions through a gaming App, the Kavinagar Police Station of Ghaziabad registered a FIR on May 30 against Khan, a resident of Devripada in Thane who is engaged in a cosmetics business.
According to the complaint, Khan had sold computer gadgets to a minor Jain boy in Ghaziabad, then befriended him through regular chats. Khan later made a Jain boy recite Quranic verses and allegedly brainwashed him with videos of the fugitive evangelist, Zakir Naik of Mumbai.
The modus operandi used by Khan in the alleged conversions was to befriend minors with fake names. “He would tell them that if they wanted to win a prize they would have to recite certain verses. The accused would make them win and trap them by sending videos of Zakir Naik,” an investigating officer said.
After being “indoctrinated” by Khan, the Jain boy soon began visiting a local mosque in Ghaziabad to offer ‘namaz’ five times daily, an unusual behaviour that shocked his family members who felt that there was something fishy behind the sudden change in his behaviour.