Two men from New Delhi have been arrested by the Uttar Pradesh police’s Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) on the charges of mass conversion of people into Islam through inducements such as marriage, job and money and mental pressure.
The two were identified as Mohammad Umar Gautam and Mufti Qazi Jahangir Alam Qasmi.
The two, and the organisation run by Gautam, Islamic Dawah Centre India, were booked under Sections 420, 120 B, 153A, 153B, 295 and 511 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 3/5 the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance-2020.
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The arrests were announced in Lucknow by Prashant Kumar, ADG Law and Order.
Umar Gautam, who had converted to Islam from Hindu faith, had allegedly converted 1,000 persons in U.P. and got many of them married to Muslims, said the ATS in a statement.
He was into mass conversion of non-Muslims, especially deaf and mute students, women, children and those from weaker and vulnerable sections, claimed the police.
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Foreign funding
Umar Gautam and his associates used Islamic Dawah Centre India to carry out the mass conversion and also received foreign funding, including from the ISI, for the conversion, alleged the police.
Mufti Qasmi, the second accused, illegally issued conversion certificates and marriage certificates for those converted, the police said.
The police also accused them of creating hatred towards their original religion in the minds of the converted persons.