The Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of the Uttar Pradesh Police on Friday took Jalaluddin Shah alias Chhangur Baba to Madhpur village under Utraula tehsil of Uttar Pradesh’s Balrampur district from where he allegedly operated his widespread racket of religious conversion.
The ATS officials said the conversion racket kingpin was taken to the spot to extract details about religious conversion activities operated from a sprawling bungalow of his associates. Earlier, the ATS obtained Chhangur Baba’s 7-day police custody remand from Lucknow district jail on Thursday afternoon.
Local authorities said the ATS team stayed there for around 45 minutes to learn more about the activities operated from the bungalow. They said the bungalow was illegally constructed following which the local administration had initiated the demolition process on Wednesday after issuing three notices to them on May 17, June 17 and July 7.
The alleged conversion racket kingpin along with his main associate Neetu Naveen Rohra alias Nasreen was arrested on July 5 and was lodged in Lucknow district jail since then. The two accused are in seven days’ police custody remand since Thursday afternoon after a Lucknow court allowed the police to interrogate them further about their entire nexus. Two more co-accused, including Nasreen’s husband Naveen Rohra alias Jamaluddin and Chhangur Baba’s son Mehboob, were arrested on April 8.
A cop privy to the probe said the alleged kingpin sensed the gravity of the crime committed by him and his aides after witnessing the demolished portion of bungalow in a bulldozer action by the state government. “The kingpin analysed that he and his associates are in a big trouble after discovering that his fortress had now been turned into debris,” he added.
{{/usCountry}}A cop privy to the probe said the alleged kingpin sensed the gravity of the crime committed by him and his aides after witnessing the demolished portion of bungalow in a bulldozer action by the state government. “The kingpin analysed that he and his associates are in a big trouble after discovering that his fortress had now been turned into debris,” he added.
{{/usCountry}}Another senior police official said the ATS brought the alleged kingpin to ground zero so he could easily explain things as well as to interrogate him separately and not before Nasreen, who is also in police custody since Thursday afternoon. He said the kingpin was later kept at a police station for some hours for questioning before bringing him back to Lucknow at ATS headquarters. The cop said another ATS team questioned Nasreen separately.
He said the kingpin and Nasreen will be cross questioned to establish the authenticity of the facts revealed by them in separate interrogation sessions. The cop said the ATS had planned this interrogation strategy well in advance to extract more details from the two key accused about religious conversion activities, key associates and financiers as well as the methods and tactics used for conversion, foreign funding, properties acquired and specific targets for conversion activities.
He further said the ATS will thoroughly interrogate the two key accused regarding their entire network spread across different districts and states as well as their foreign links. “We have prepared two separate lists of questions to be asked from Chhangur Baba and Nasreen. Besides, there is another list of common questions to be asked,” the cop added.
As per the cop, Chhangur Baba was questioned about the nature and purpose of his conversion activities. He was also grilled as to how he attracted and recruited individuals for conversion and who are his associates and financiers as well as their specific target individuals. Similarly, Nasreen was asked about her role in the conversion racket.