The Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) has arrested three more individuals in the Maulana Umar Gautam conversion racket case. The three arrested have been identified as Mohammed Idris Qureshi, Mohammed Salim and Kunal Ashok Chaudhry alias Atif.
Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui, who had been arrested earlier in the matter, mentioned the names of the three accused during questioning. Siddiqui also said, “I made furthering the cause of the Ummah my duty and whenever we converted someone (to Islam), we informed our associated abroad who paid them a lot of money to remain within the Islamic fold and convert others. I benefitted a lot financially from it.”
According to the UP ATS, Idris Qureshi and Mohammed Salim have been aiding Siddiqui’s conversion activities for the past 17 years. The accused has apparently confessed that he used to work under the direction of Siddiqui. Atif, a doctor, has been working with Siddiqui for the past two years. Atif converted to Islam while he was pursuing his medical education in Russia but had not managed to clear the MCI examination in India.
Even so, he was illegally operating a clinic in the country. Idris Qureshi used to run a Madarsa operated by Siddiqui’s Trust and collect funds for it. The Madarsa was run as a conversion center. Qureshi has built a house worth Rs. 60 lakhs in Muzaffarnagar and a bike worth Rs. 2.5 lakh has been recovered, the source of funds for which are not known.
Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui was arrested by the UP ATS on the 21st of September in the conversion racket case. Since then, an audio clip has gone viral that purportedly shows the Maulana admitting that upper caste girls from the Brahmin and Kshatriya community were targeted for conversion to Islam.
Earlier, it was reported that the cleric was receiving funding from Pakistan for running his illegal conversion racket. Apart from that, Pakistan had also been providing technical assistance to Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui.
Earlier, the police had revealed that the 64-year-old Islamic scholar runs Jamia Imam Waliullah trust that funds several madrassas for which he received huge foreign funding. Uttar Pradesh ADG (Law and Order) Prashant Kumar informed, “Investigation shows Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui’s trust received Rs 3 crores in foreign funding including Rs 1.5 from Bahrain.”
