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First major case under Uttar Pradesh anti-conversion law: HC grants bail to eight convicts, denies relief to eight others
The UP ATS had busted the conversion racket after arresting Maulana Umar Gautam, chairman of Islamic Da’wah Centre, in 2021
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The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court has granted bail to eight of the 16 convicts in Uttar Pradesh’s first major unlawful religious conversion case registered in 2021, while rejecting bail for eight others, including the alleged masterminds Mohd Umar Gautam and Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui.
The case had led to the first major prosecution under the UP Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021. The UP ATS had busted the conversion racket after the arrest of Maulana Umar Gautam, chairman of Islamic Da’wah Centre operated from Delhi’s Batla House locality, along with Mufti Kazi Jahangir Kasmi, an employee of the centre, on June 20, 2021. Gautam faces charges of converting around 1000 people to Islam.
Later, 15 others, including Umar Gautam’s son Abdullah Umar, were arrested.
A division bench of Justice Rajesh Singh Chauhan and Justice Ram Manohar Narayan Mishra passed the common order on Wednesday on bail applications filed in 16 criminal appeals against the September 11, 2024, order of the special judge, NIA court, Lucknow.
Those who were granted bailed include Rahul Bhola, Mannu Yadav, Dheeraj Govind Rao Jagtap, Dr Arsalan, Abdullah Umar, Sarfaraz Ali Jafri, Kunal Ashok Chaudhary and Saleem
Those denied bail are Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui, Umar Gautam, Kausar Alam, Adam, Irfan Sheikh, Dr Faraz Babullah Shah, Salahuddin and Qazi Jahangir Alam.
Advocate Zia Ul Qayum Jilani argued for five accused, of whom four — Rahul Bhola, Mannu Yadav, Dheeraj Jagtap and Dr Arsalan — got bail.
Court’s reasoning
The bench noted that all appellants have undergone more than four years and six months in jail, during trial and after conviction but it drew a sharp distinction between the two groups.
For the eight denied bail, the court said: “....Allegations and nature of evidence in respect of offences in question is comparatively on a lighter side in respect of other accused persons, who are said to be their associates.”
The court also noted that Mohd Saleem, Rahul Bhola, Mannu Yadav and Kunal Ashok Chaudhari alias Atif have not been convicted of charges under Section 121A of the Indian Penal Code (conspiracy to wage war against the Government of India).
The other eight, including Gautam and Kaleem Siddiqui, were convicted under Sections 121A and 123 of the Indian Penal Code (concealing with intent to facilitate design to wage war), apart from Sections 417, 153A, 153B, 295A, 298, 120B IPC and Section 3/5/8 of the UP Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021 and Section 35 of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act)
Umar Gautam and Abdullah Umar were sentenced to life while Mannu Yadav, Saleem, Kunal and Rahul Bhola were sentenced to 10 years.
The remaining eight—Kaleem Siddiqui, Qazi Jhangeer, Kauser Alam, Adam, Dheeraj Jagtap, Arslan Mustafa, Faraz Shah, Sarfaraz Jafri and Sallahuddin—were sentenced to life in the trial court’s 265-page judgment on September 11, 2024.
The high court said the eight granted bail deserved relief “in the light of totality of facts and circumstances of the case, the role attributed to them, the evidence regarding the overt act committed by them.”
What defence argued
Senior advocate Purnendu Chakraborty, assisted by Krishan Kumar, for Kunal alias ‘Atif’, and others argued that the trial court’s judgment was based on conjecture, presumption and substantial reproduction of case diary material.
No allegation or evidence of conspiracy to wage war (No Section 121A made out), the defence said.
It added that only six alleged victims were examined though the allegation was of 1,000 conversions.
What the state argued
Additional advocate general Vinod Kumar Shahi, assisted by additional government advocate S N Tilhari, opposed bail, arguing conviction was based on oral, documentary and digital evidence of 24 witnesses and a detailed 265-page judgment.
The state alleged a large-scale conspiracy to change demography by converting gullible persons with the objective of converting India from a secular state to an Islamic state.
The court listed the appeals for final hearing in the first week of January 2027 and ordered summoning of trial court records.
