The Uttar Pradesh mass conversion case is getting murkier by the day as the details of the crimes committed by accused Mohammed Umar Gautam and Qazi Jahangir are coming to the fore. The UP ATS has filed yet another FIR against the accused in connection with the conversion of a Hindu girl in Shahjahanpur district.
The 29-year-old Hindu girl had converted to Islam before marrying a Muslim man. The duo is currently in Delhi and the ATS officials are trying to reach out to her, reports said. As per a report in the Free Press Journal, the woman had left home on Friday and has not returned since then.
The woman had stated that she had found contact of Gautam and Jahangir online and they had helped her get converted after taking some identification documents.
It is notable here that conversion under false pretexts and allurement is illegal. The recent anti-conversion law in UP mandates a 2 months prior notice at the respective DM’s office before converting to another religion.
As per reports, the woman as stated to local channels that she had converted to Islam in the hopes of finding better job prospects in Gulf countries and better salaries. The woman’s family have stated that she has not been in touch with them and they were recently contacted only by her lawyer.
Yesterday, it was reported that tracing the contacts of the arrested duo, the ATS had found names of 8 radical hardliners from Kanpur, who were in constant touch with Gautam and Jahangir. Those 8 people also used to organise meetings and talks.
So far, ATS has arrested 5 individuals in the countrywide conversion racket case. Recent reports also revealed that Gautam had forged documents to get funding from several nations.
UP ATS arrests Mohammed Umar Gautam and Qazi Jahangir Alam for running a mass conversion racket
The Uttar Pradesh police’s Anti-Terrorism Squad on Monday last week busted a country-wide religious conversion racket and arrested two people in the case. The accused were later identified as Mufti Qazi Jahangir Qasmi and Mohammad Umar Gautam, residents of Jamia Nagar in South Delhi.
Ever since the duo has been arrested for operating a mass conversion racket in Uttar Pradesh, shocking details have emerged with regards to the modus operandi employed by the two to target non-Muslims and bring them into the fold of Islam.
The two accused, who ran an organisation named Islamic Dawah Centre(IDC), along with their other associates, were charged for mass conversion of people into Islam through allurements such as marriage, job and money and mental pressure.
The Islamic Dawah Centre(IDC) received heavy funding from the Middle East countries for their operations of carrying out religious conversions in India. Not just from the Muslim countries in the Gulf, but the duo also allegedly received funding from Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence(ISI), the police have stated.
The duo is accused of converting dozens of hearing and speech impaired students of the Noida Deaf society.
Gautam and Jahangir converted over 1000 people to Islam: Police
Mohammad Umar Gautam, one of the two accused was known as Shyam Prasad Singh Gautam before he shunned his Hindu faith and embraced Islam. The Anti Terror Squad said Gautam had allegedly converted over 1,000 people to Islam and got many of them married to Muslims to prevent the possibility of their relapse to their earlier faith.
The police also found that the two accused, Jahangir and Gautam, used hate speech to indoctrinate people and convert them into Islam. They especially targeted the vulnerable section of the society, people with listening and hearing disabilities in different institutions and converted them into Islam, often without even intimating their parents.
Gautam’s links with Islamists arrested in connection with the conspiracy to assassinate Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati
Incidentally, the names of Jahangir and Gautam cropped up during the interrogation of Kashif and Vipul, who were arrested in connection with the conspiracy to assassinate Dasna Devi Temple chief abbot Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati. According to police, Vipul’s real name was Ramzan and was operating under a false name to avoid suspicion and get in close proximity to Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati.
Gautam had close ties with hate speech peddler Zakir Naik and Bilal Philips
According to report published on Republic TV, Umar Gautam has links with fugitive hate speech peddler Zakir Naik and his close aide Bilal Philips, who in turn is associated with terror outfits such as Taliban and Hamas.