Islamic preachers among 12 get life imprisonment in illegal religious conversion case

Officials claim the accused was involved in converting poor people and students with hearing disabilities to Islam.

A special NIA-Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) court in Lucknow on Wednesday awarded life sentence to Islamic preacher Maulana Kalim Siddiqui, Islamic Da'wah Centre founder Mohammed Umar Gautam and 10 others in a 2021 case of illegal religious conversion, PTI reported.

Among the twelve accused, four others were also sentenced to 10-years in prison under UP Prohibition of Religious Conversion Act 2021, the court said.

Among the twelve accused, four others - Mohd. Salim, Rahul Bhola, Mannu Yadav, Kunal Ashok Chaudhary -were also sentenced to 10-years in prison under UP Prohibition of Religious Conversion Act 2021, the court said.

Besides Gautam and Siddiqui, others sentenced to life are Irfan Sheikh, Salauddin Zainuddin Sheikh, Prasad Rameshwar Kanware alias Adam, Arsalan Mustafa alias Bhupriya Bandon, Kaushar Alam, Faraz Shah, Maulana Kalim Siddiqui, Dheeraj Govind Rao Jagtap, Sarfaraz Ali Jafri, Qazi Jahangir and Abdullah Umar under IPC section 121A (conspiracy to commit offence against the State).

Officials said the accused were involved in running a racket named Islamic Da'wah Centre. The centre was involved in converting poor people and students with hearing disabilities to Islam. They are also suspected to have received funding from Pakistan's intelligence agency the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

Explaining their activities, Director General of Police Prashant Kumar said Gautam had converted to Islam from Hinduism and lived in Batla House of Delhi's Jamia Nagar. "During interrogation, he boasted to the police of having converted "at least 1,000 people to Islam", luring them with marriage, money and jobs", Kumar added.

An FIR was lodged in Lucknow and an investigation was launched into the alleged cases of illegal religious conversions and foreign funding. All the accused were arrested by the ATF in various operations launched in different parts of the country, officials claimed.

According to Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Act 2021, “No person shall convert or attempt to convert, either directly or otherwise, any other person from one religion to another by use or practice of misrepresentation, force, undue influence, coercion, allurement or by any fraudulent means or by marriage nor shall any person abet, convince or conspire such conversion”.

Any conversion deemed unlawful (through force, misrepresentation, undue influence, coercion, or by marriage) is punishable. Penalties include imprisonment of 1 to 5 years, and in the case of conversion involving minors, women, or people from Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes, imprisonment can be extended to 10 years.

(With PTI inputs)