Sleuths of the Anti-Terrorists Squad (ATS) claimed to have made a major breakthrough in a religious conversion racket with the arrest of so-called Islamic scholar Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui from Meerut on Tuesday.
Besides, a sign language expert working with Union Ministry of Child and Family Welfare is among those arrested by the ATS for his complicity in religious conversion racket and has been identified as Maharashtra native Irfan Khwaja Khan.
Briefing media persons in Lucknow on Wednesday, ADG (Law and Order) Prashant Kumar said that six ATS teams had been working on coercive religious conversions after the arrest of Umar Gautam from Delhi a few months back. He said during surveillance, Sidddiqui’s activities were found to be suspicious and he was taken into custody by an ATS team in Meerut.
This is the 11th arrest by the ATS in conversion case.
“Following the arrest of Delhi's Jamia Nagar residents Mufti Qazi Jahangir Alam Qasmi and Mohammad Umar Gautam, who ran Islamic Dawah Centre, an outfit allegedly working on the ISI funding for converting deaf-mute students to Islam, on June 20 last, the ATS has been probing the conversion racket and has so far arrested 10 people besides Siddiqui. The UP ATS arrests in the racket have also prompted Enforcement Directorate to initiate a probe to locate foreign funding and money laundering,” Kumar said.
The ADG further said that it came to light during probe that Gautam and his accomplice were funded Rs 57 crore by Britain-based Al-Falaa Trust but the two did not provide details of the expenditure. Organisations that funded Gautam’s ventures also gave funds to the Siddiqui’s trust. It was also found that Siddiqui was involved in the illegal conversion racket under the garb of running various educational, social and religious organisations.
“Foreign funding was done for this (conversion) in a big way and illegal/coercive conversions were being carried out in a planned and organised manner and many well-known individuals and institutions are involved in it. In fact, Siddiqui ran the biggest conversion syndicate and threatened and misled people for conversion and prepared them for ‘Dawah’ (the act of inviting or calling people to embrace Islam). The ATS stumbled upon the fact Siddiqui ran an organisation called ‘Jamia Imaam Waliullah Trust’ which was carrying out illegal religious conversions in the name of organising communal harmony programmes.”
The arrested were booked under relevant sections of Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2020 and the Indian Penal Code, as per the officials. The ED named Mufti Qazi Jahangir and Mohammad Umar Gautam as the main accused in the case. After this case was busted, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Yogi Adityanath ordered action under the Gangster Act and National Security Act.
The ATS sleuths stumbled upon the fact that Siddiqui is a resident of Muzaffarnagar and after completing a BSc course from Meerut, he cleared Pre Medical Test (PMT) but instead of pursuing MBBS, he joined Nadwatul Ulema in Lucknow. Siddiqui also funded madrasas and for this, he used to get huge money from abroad by illegal means. For conversion, Siddiqui’s self-written literature, which is available online as well as in print, was being provide free of cost to people. He was trying to ensure that people believe that only Shariat arrangement can ensure justice to them and used to emphasise that issues like triple talaq should be dealt under the light of Shariat.
The ATS probe has expose that Rs 1.5 crore was transferred into Sidiqui’s trust account illegally from Bahrain and evidence of Rs 3 crore funding was found. Six teams of the ATS are probing the case and trying to find out more evidence against him.
Meanwhile, sources confirmed that Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui (64) along with fellow clerics had come to a programme at the residence of Imam Shariq of Humayun Nagar Masjid Mashallah in Lisadigate, Meerut at 7 pm on Tuesday. After the prayer of Isha at 9 pm, he and his companions returned by car. During this, the family called him, but the mobile was found switched off. The family informed Imam Shariq in Meerut. Family and friends started searching, but failed to locate him. After this, a crowd gathered at Lisadigate police station and the commotion continued till late night. After some time, information was received that Maulana was taken into custody by the ATS.
Maulana Kalim Siddiqui of Phulat area of Muzaffarnagar, and three others and driver Salim were picked up by the security agency on Tuesday night. Throughout the night, the Lucknow ATS quizzed these four suspects. Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui of Fulat is known as an Islamic scholars and is also the director of Fulat's Madrasa Jamia Imam Waliullah Islamia. Maulana Kaleem also participated in the ‘Nation first and Nation paramount’ programme organised by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat in Mumbai on September 7 last.