The Uttar Pradesh Police have invoked the Uttar Pradesh Gangsters Act and the Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act against all the accused in the Mirzapur Gym conversion racket. 10 individuals were named as accused in the religious conversion racket operating from five gyms in Mirzapur. All 10 accused are currently behind bars, and the gyms, KGN-1.0, KGN-2.0, KGN-3.0, B-Fit, and Iron Fire, have been closed.
The gym conversion racket came to light in January this year after two women from Mirzapur filed separate complaints at different police stations. In their complaints, the women said that gym trainers and gym owners first became friendly with them and slowly pulled them into love relationships. Later, the women were blackmailed using obscene photos and videos and were pressured to convert to Islam.
During the investigation of the case, the police uncovered a larger network of Muslim men involved in harassing, blackmailing and coercing female gym trainees to convert to their religion. The accused gym owners and trainers were booked by the police on multiple charges, including intentional insult aimed at provoking a breach of peace, extortion, criminal intimidation, assault or use of criminal force, and unlawful religious conversion.
According to police, the accused lured Hindu women who joined the gyms under the pretext of providing training. The accused were operating with ulterior motives of securing unlawful gains, including financial gains, for themselves and their associates. For achieving this end, the accused lured these Hindu women into relationships and established physical relations with them. They captured obscene videos and photographs of these women and used them to blackmail and extort money from them.
The accused used their gyms as recruitment centres and used social media platforms to target, approach and monitor potential victims. Over 50 women were reportedly lured and targeted by the culprits. The accused in the case include, a police constable named Irshad Khan, a Maulvi named Khalilu Rahman, and Faizal Khan, who won the title of ‘Mr Mirzapur’ in 2019, and ‘Mr Purvanchal’ in 2022. A Muslim woman named Sanno was also involved in the conversion racket, who was given the task of winning the trust of Hindu victims and trapping them.
