The extensive investigation being carried out by the Uttar Pradesh ATS in the mass conversion racket has brought to fore the first incident of forced conversion from Prayagraj. As per a report, Jyotika Rai- a young girl from Prayagraj was allegedly converted to Islam after her stay in Delhi.
A B.Tech and M.Tech in Mechanical Engineering, Jyotika Rai is currently pursuing a further degree from New Delhi. An investigation is on to determine the cause and reason behind her conversion.
Another case of a Rucha from Kanpur who also pursued her education in Prayagraj and shifted to Delhi for further studies has reportedly been converted to Islam. Rucha completed her MBA and secured a job in Jaipur. However, as per her father Satish, she quit the job in a few months and shifted to Delhi.
Satish, during a media interaction, informed that Rucha used to often talk about her professor Shahid from Allahabad University. Shahid who was accused of giving shelter to Jamatis was arrested by the UP Police.
Prime accused Umar Gautam is also said to have completed his education from Prayagraj.
Officer from Ministry of Women & Child Development collected data of children
As per a Dainik Bhaskar report, an officer working in the Women & Child Development department has been nabbed who passed on the information of orphaned and differently-abled children to the Islamic Da’wah Centre. The officer is said to be a convert himself.
Based on such data, conversion racket leader Umar Gautam used to approach such children and get them to his centre. The ones who refused to convert were lured with admission into the Noida Deaf Society or similar institutes.
The ATS found the names of some children in the Islam Da’wah Centre’s list of conversions for whose help their parents had applied to the Ministry of Child Welfare. It is due to this list that the ATS discovered that it was an officer from the department who provided these names to Umar Gautam’s Centre. The officer is said to be a close aide of Umar Gautam.
The Uttar Pradesh government had sought help from certain NGOs to prepare a list of children orphaned due to Covid. However, with the involvement of dubious NGOs in the conversion racket, the government has taken most NGOs off duty. A team of few trusted officers has been appointed instead.
ATS takes Umar Gautam to 4 districts
The ATS on Saturday took the prime accused Umar Gautam and Mufti Kazi Jahangir Qasmi to four districts near NCR which they frequented for conversion purposes.
An ATS official informed, “We found documents of some individuals in NCR, who were forcefully converted. “Umar Gautam and Mufti Kazi Jahangir Qasimhad visited these areas several times. All these details are being scrutinised,” said the officer.
The official also said that the duo had resided in Ghaziabad, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Bulandshahr and Meerut in the past to convert women and youth.
The ATS officials additionally informed that they have got links of the arrested duo with a suspicious society based in Assam. “The credentials of the society are being verified and its details will be shared with us by the Assam police,” added the officer.
Non-Muslim girls from rural areas targeted
The ATS had confirmed that during their interrogation the duo revealed yet another modus operandi of their mass conversion racket. They have revealed that they targeted girls in the rural areas as they were easier to prey on.
The ATS recovered a list with names of 31 non-Muslim girls who fell into their conversion trap and most of these girls belonged to the rural areas. On questioning, the accused reportedly told the ATS officials that it was easier to brainwash girls living in villages into embracing Islam. They are mostly uneducated and belong to lesser privileged families. So it becomes easier to lure them with jobs and financial aids, which was what Umar Gautam exactly did to lure his target into embracing Islam.
