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Mass religious conversion racket: Umar Gautam linked to Lucknow-based educational society
LUCKNOW Maulana Umar Gautam, 57, who was arrested here along with his accomplice Jahangir Alam, 52, for allegedly being part of a nationwide religious conversion racket, has been found to have links with a Lucknow-based educational society operating two schools on the city’s outskirts and adjoining Hardoi district, said officials of the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) in UP
LUCKNOW Maulana Umar Gautam, 57, who was arrested here along with his accomplice Jahangir Alam, 52, for allegedly being part of a nationwide religious conversion racket, has been found to have links with a Lucknow-based educational society operating two schools on the city’s outskirts and adjoining Hardoi district, said officials of the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) in UP.
More conversions of women and some minors surfaced, which are also being investigated, they said.
The UP ATS launched a helpline number 97921031056 and an e-mail ID controlroom.ats-up@gov.in on which people can share details of forced conversions and any information related to Umar Gautam and Jahangir Alam.
The agency would also take help of central agencies to probe the conversion racket in different states, said Prashant Kumar, ADG (law and order), UP police.
Umar Gautam is found to be associated with an educational society operational in Rehmankheda locality on the outskirts of Lucknow since February 2014. Gautam is the vice-president of the society, said another senior police official.
The society is running an English medium school where over 500 students are enrolled. It is also running a girls’ school in Rasoolpur locality of Hardoi for the past few years. The ATS team will soon visit the society’s office to question office bearers, he said.
The official said some more religious conversions by Umar Gautam and his aides surfaced in Lucknow and Gautam Buddh Nagar. These include two women from Lucknow’s Telibagh and Aliganj areas and a 17-year-old boy of Gautam Buddh Nagar who was missing since May 2018.
“The boy’s mother had filed missing report at Phase 2 police station in 2018. We found his name on a Facebook account as Mohd Rehaan Ansari and the id has been deactivated now. We are looking for him,” said Abdul Qadir, ACP-1 (Central Noida).
After reports of religious conversions of children at the Noida Deaf Society, its founder Ruma Roka told local media that the society’s selfless work has been questioned. “If such allegations are made against us, nobody would want to serve the society,” she said.
“I urge people not to entertain reports defaming us and wait for the truth to come out. We are cooperating with the ATS and have provided them with details of all the students,” added Roka.
Umar Gautam was born as Shyam Prakash Singh Gautam in a Thakur family of UP’s Fatehpur district and embraced Islam under the influence of his Muslim friends while pursuing higher studies (BSc and MSc Agriculture) in Nainital in 1984, said police.
Gautam and his accomplice Jahangir Alam, who were arrested from Lucknow on Monday, are being interrogated about the mass religious conversion racket, said an ATS official. (Inputs from agency)
