The Agra police arrested Abdul Rehman, popular as Rehman Chacha, from Delhi, in connection with the religious conversions case, on Monday.
Among the 10 people arrested earlier in connection with the case, all of them said that they were working for Abdul Rehman. One of them was Ayesha.
“Ayesha, an active member of the racket and arrested last week from Goa, and others were working for Abdul Rehman in Delhi. They all used to target Hindus and Christians for conversion to Islam as part of their ideology,” said Agra commissioner Deepak Kumar, who clarified that there was no connection with Changur Baba arrested in UP earlier.
The accused is being brought to Agra where police will seek his police remand from court as he was a close aide of Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui arrested by UP ATS in 2021.
During interrogation, Agra police came to know that Abdul Rehman was running the conversion racket begun by Kaleem Siddiqui who was sentenced to life imprisonment by NIA Court in 2024.
Police is also working on the connection of Abdul Rehman with his nephew in London, because police stated that the racket had foreign funding, mainly from the USA and Canada.
{{/usCountry}}Police is also working on the connection of Abdul Rehman with his nephew in London, because police stated that the racket had foreign funding, mainly from the USA and Canada.
{{/usCountry}}Agra commissioner Deepak Kumar informed the media on Monday about the arrest of Abdul Rehman from Delhi.
“...During his interrogation, it was revealed that he was a Hindu by name Mahendra Pal and resident of Firozabad but converted to Islam in 1990 and went to Delhi as a labourer,” he said.
“In Delhi, Abdul Rehman came in contact with Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui from Shaheen Bagh who was arrested by UP ATS in 2021 and was convicted to life imprisonment in 2024. Abdul Rehman took up the work of racket for conversion after arrest of Kaleem Siddiqui in 2021 and rose as kingpin while popularly known as Rehman Chacha and was so mentioned in statement by Ayesha, arrested from Goa last week for conversion,” the CP said.
“During the search operation after the arrest of Abdul Rehman, thousands of books seized, including ‘Aapki Amanat Aapki Seva main’ written by Maulana Mohd Kaleem Siddiqui has the contact number of Abdul Rehman amongst four names on books. The name of Abdul Rehman was mentioned in a book written by Kaleem and published by Global Peace Center,” said the commissioner.
“A girl from Haryana was also rescued from clutches of this conversion gang busted. On inquiry, Haryana police confirmed that a case was registered at Rohtak in Haryana about the missing girl,” the CP said.