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ED conducts raids in connection with religious conversions
Pakistan’s spy agency Inter-services Intelligence is also alleged to have funded the alleged conversion racket.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday carried out raids at six locations in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh in connection with the alleged forced religious conversions involving key accused Mohammad Umar Gautam, officials said.
The Anti-Terrorist Squad of Uttar Pradesh last month arrested Gautam and his associate Mufti Qazi Jahangir Qasim, both residents of Jamia Nagar in Delhi, and claimed that they were running a “mass conversion racket” across India.
Police have said the accused persons allegedly received funding from international organisations and targeted specially-abled children and other vulnerable groups for conversion to Islam. They were allegedly involved in the conversion of over 1,000 people over the past 18 months, Uttar Pradesh police claimed last month.
Pakistan’s spy agency Inter-services Intelligence is also alleged to have funded them.
The authorities have said they came to know about the group in June following the arrest of two Muslim men who tried to enter a temple complex in the Dasna area of Ghaziabad district pretending to be Hindus
On the basis of the Uttar Pradesh police’s case against the accused, the ED launched a money-laundering probe and carried out raids on Saturday.
In Delhi, the ED teams raided three places including the office of Islamic Dawah Centre and residences of Gautam and Qasmi.
In Uttar Pradesh, ED searched offices of Al Hassan Education & Welfare Foundation and Guidance Education & Welfare Society in Lucknow.
These organisations, ED said, were run by Gautam and have been playing an instrumental role in carrying out conversions.
The central agency said it recovered several “incriminating documents” on Saturday “which reveal large-scale conversion carried out by accused Umar Gautam and his organisations all over India”.
“The documents also reveal several crores of foreign funding received by the accused organisations for the purpose of illegal conversions,” said an officer, who did not want to be named.
