A fresh case of forced conversion has been lodged in the Faridabad district of Haryana against Islamic scholar Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui by one Vinod Kumar alias Noor Mohammad. The complainant said that he was a minor when Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui had forced him to accept Islam.
Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui and five others have been booked for the forced conversion. The Public Relations Officer (PRO) of Faridabad Police, Sube Singh, has confirmed the FIR has been lodged.
64 years old Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui, one of the top clerics from western Uttar Pradesh, was arrested by the Anti-Terrorist Squad of Uttar Pradesh Police for being involved in the biggest conversion racket. So far the investigation is concerned with the cleric who runs Jamia Imam Waliullah trust and Global Peace Center, which is alleged to have received foreign funding worth Rs 3 crores.
In the fresh case, the complainant who is the resident of Premnagar, sector 17 of Faridabad district, said that he was a minor in 2013 when Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui and his associates forcefully converted him to Islam. The complainant further alleged that a person name Dilshad whom he identified as a close aide of Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui often pressurized him to undergo terror training in Pakistan.
Explaining how he became a victim of the conversion racket, Binod Kumar said that in 2011-2012 he was a student of class nine at New Vidya Mandir School. Some of the Muslims, including Shahzad and his relatives Anish Khan, Rahish Khan, Ashfaq Siddique and Mohammd Ali stayed in the same locality. They regularly used to poison his mind about Hindu religion and enticed him to change his religion to Islam.
These Muslims regularly took him to a local mosque “Sitara Masjid’ where he was brainwashed that if he accepts Islam it will save him from hell.
In 2013 they took him to the Global Peace Center of Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui located at Shaheen Bagh. Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui coaxed him to recite the kalima stating that Islam will save him from the fire of hell. Vinod Kumar was named Noor Mohammad soon after that.
After that Vinod Kumar turned Noor Mohammad was sent to Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat to study Islam which mostly focused on hate for Hinduism. But the situation had left him terrified as Dilshad often pressured him to visit Pakistan to receive terror training.
The victim has also explained why he lodged the FIR so late. He said that in 2018 he somehow managed to escape from their clutches and remained underground for two years in Faridabad. In 2020 he visited his family after he came to know that his sister had been married.
He narrated the whole episode to the family members who convinced him to lodge an FIR.
Court sends Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui on 10 days police remand in UP conversion racket case
In the Uttar Pradesh conversion racket, the Special Judge NIA/ATS YR Gupta sent Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui on 10 days police remand for his questioning by the ATS. The custody period starts from 10 AM of September 24 till 10 AM of October 4. In the remand plea, ATS said that a mobile phone and seven local and foreign SIM cards were recovered from the possession of the accused. ATS claimed that he runs many Muslim institutions and through them, he used to convert non-Muslim into Islam. He has been booked under relevant sections of the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2020 and IPC.
ATS G.K. Goswami the IG of ATS informed that Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui will be taken to the offices Global Peace Center, which will be raided to gather digital and documentary evidences. Besides, he will be taken to Meerut and Muzaffarnagar after the raid in his Delhi institution is completed.
