Conversion racket: All 3 accused remanded in judicial custody

The three were caught with a large number of Islamic religious books. It was alleged that Monish and Sameer were distributing the ‘Islamic’ books in the Mela area with the motive of religious conversion

Three men, including a madrasa teacher, who were arrested on Tuesday for allegedly distributing ‘suspicious’ religious books at Magh Mela, were produced in a court on Wednesday. The court sent them to the Naini jail under judicial custody.

The court sent the three men to the Naini jail under judicial custody.

The Daraganj police and SOG team had arrested Madrasa teacher Mehmood Hasan Gazi, Mohd Monish aka Ashish Kumar Gupta and Mohd Sameer aka Naresh Kumar Saroj with a large number of Islamic religious books. It was alleged that Monish and Sameer were distributing the ‘Islamic’ books in the Mela area with the motive of religious conversion. “The books contain objectionable material against the Hindu religion,” the police claimed.

Meanwhile, the ongoing investigation revealed that Monish had been heading the eastern zone head of Students Islamic Organisation (SIO). He reportedly accepted Islam under the influence of his uncle, and then learnt Urdu and gained Islamic knowledge from a madrasa in Azamgarh. He later started working with Mehmood Hasan.

Sameer reportedly adopted Islam 12 years ago and married a Muslim woman. The marriage was arranged by Monish’s uncle Saeed Ahmad.

Meanwhile, the police officials were also trying to unearth the “network of foreign funding done through hawala and e-wallets”. The questioning of Mehmood Hasan reportedly revealed the name of one Mohd Qasim, who sent money from Abu Dhabi for the printing of the books in question.

Although the police didn’t find any suspicious activity from his bank transactions, Hasan’s WhatsApp history, however, revealed that he demanded money from Qasim for the printing of books and pamphlets, and also to give to the latter a list of persons who were being targeted for “conversion”.

The investigation also revealed the links of the accused with persons involved in the Atala violence last year.

Meanwhile, police officials said an application seeking remand of the accused would soon be submitted to the court. Mehmood’s passport, meanwhile, was yet to be recovered. The document would help the police in finding out how many foreign visits has the latter had.