Uttar Pradesh police have foiled a major plan of alleged religious conversion during the auspicious Magh Mela of Prayagraj. The special operations group of the Uttar Pradesh police and a team from the Daraganj police station arrested three persons in a joint operation that took place on 17th January 2023.
Informing more about this, the Prayagraj police commissionerate tweeted, “3 members of the gang selling counterfeit suspected Islamic books with the intention of hurting the faith of Hindu Dharma in Magh Mela were arrested by the joint team of Police Station Daraganj and SOG. A large number of unauthenticated books were recovered.”
माघ मेला में हिन्दू धर्म की आस्था को ठेस पहुंचाने के आशय से अपनी पहचान छिपाकर कूटरचित संदिग्ध इस्लामिक पुस्तके बेचने वाले गिरोह के 03 सदस्य थाना दारागंज व SOG की संयुक्त टीम द्वारा गिरफ्तार व भारी संख्या में अप्रमाणित पुस्तकें बरामद pic.twitter.com/Hw4F6HCila
— POLICE COMMISSIONERATE PRAYAGRAJ (@prayagraj_pol) January 17, 2023
According to a report by Amar Ujala, a plan of an alleged attempt at religious conversion during the Magh Mela was revealed in Prayagraj. As many as 204 books containing Muslim literature and objectionable articles related to Hinduism have been recovered. Three people, including a madrasa teacher, have been arrested. The arrested mastermind of this gang is identified as Mahmood Hasan Ghazi. He is a resident of GTB Nagar Kareli. He teaches in a madrasa.
Madarsa teacher Mahmood Hasan has told in the interrogation that he used to get funding from Abu Dhabi in UAE for this work. He runs an organization called Badme Paigame Bahdaniyat and is also its president.
The accused attempted to stir communal strife by distributing Islamic literature at Magh Mela
It was reported that some people were trying to spoil the atmosphere by distributing Islamic religious books at the Magh Mela. On reaching the spot, two young men were found doing this in a stall. They had put books related to Hinduism on top, but under them, they had largely kept books related to Islam.
When the two were questioned, they identified themselves as Ashish Kumar Gupta and Naresh Kumar Saroj. However, after being brought to the police station, they were arrested. Two Aadhaar cards named Monish and Sameer were found. During interrogation, it was found that he was doing this work at the behest of Ghazi, a teacher of Islamia Himdadia Madrasa in Puramufti, and he also used to get money for this work. Shocking revelations were made when the police caught Ghazi from his house in GTB Nagar in Kareli.
Prayagraj’s deputy commissioner of police told during a media interaction, “Nowadays, Magh Mela is going on here. At such time we arrested two boys from the Magh Mela. They were distributing religious books on a stall. Some of the books were related to the religion Islam. Some other books were about Hindu Dharma in which there are articles quoting and misinterpreting verses from Hindu Dharmic scriptures. This can hurt the religious sentiments of the people from the Hindu community. Such books were being distributed by them on that stall. One of them is Monish and the other is Sameer. Earlier, both of them were Hindus. Monish converted to Islam 2 years ago while Sameer converted 12 years ago. Mahmood Ghazi is a madrasa teacher who used to supply these books to the two youths who were distributing the books there free of cost. While distributing the books, they clicked photographs with the people who would take these books. The two also took the contact numbers of those people. The purpose of this activity was to spot the soft targets and later convert them. We took action as soon as we received this information.”
माघ मेला में हिन्दू धर्म की आस्था को ठेस पहुंचाने के आशय से अपनी पहचान छिपाकर कूटरचित संदिग्ध इस्लामिक पुस्तके बेचने वाले गिरोह के 03 सदस्यों की गिरफ्तारी व भारी संख्या में अप्रमाणित पुस्तकों की बरामदगी के सम्बन्ध में अपर पुलिस उपायुक्त अपराध द्वारा दी गयी बाइटः- https://t.co/eK6ieECTMJ pic.twitter.com/SLHAJqTiDs
— POLICE COMMISSIONERATE PRAYAGRAJ (@prayagraj_pol) January 17, 2023
He further said, “These people would especially visit the Hindu Dharmic places. They had put a stall near the Hanuman temple in the city. They had also visited Banaras where they distributed such books on the Assi Ghat of the Kashi Vishwanath temple. Now we have arrested the two booksellers and the one who supplied these books to them. We have taken action against them and also investigating the case further. They received funds from Abu Dhabi. They used to click photographs with people taking books from them.”
“Then the two booksellers would send these photographs to their supplier Mahmood Ghazi. He would then forward those photographs to a foreign country from where he would receive funds in his money wallet in an instalment of Rs 10000 each. We have inquired for more details about these transactions. These books are printed in Delhi. Some of them are also printed locally. There is no ISBN on any of the books,” he further said.
According to the report by Amar Ujala, the arrested individuals are identified as 1. Mahmud Hasan Gazi son of Md. Ahsan resident of Matinpur, Kishandaspur under the Police Station Hussainganj Fatehpur, 2. Mo. Monish alias Ashish Kumar Gupta resident of Sudnipur Kala, under the Hanumanganj police station in Saraiinayat, 3. Sameer alias Naresh Kumar Saroj son of Dulare resident of Chhota Lalapur, Chail under the Police Station Pipri in Kaushambi
The police seized 204 suspicious religious books, three mobile phones, four Aadhaar cards, Rs 2,600 in cash, a cart, and a diary from the arrested accused. Monish and Sameer, who are among the arrested accused, are also associated with the Islamic organization. Monish is the zonal secretary of the Eastern UP unit of the Student Islamic Organisation, while Sameer is an active member of it. According to the police, both of them told in the interrogation that they had been doing this work for a long time. For this, they used to get per head five thousand rupees per month. They said that Mahmood Hasan Ghazi used to ask them to distribute this literature mostly around Hindu religious places.
Satish Chandra, ADCP Crime informed, “A case has been registered against them at Daraganj police station under various charges including spreading enmity on grounds of religion and under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention of Religious Conversion) Act. They have been sent to jail by the court’s order.”
