On May 9, Monday, a Lucknow court rejected the bail plea of Mohammed Umar Gautam, arrested in connection with a mass conversion racket busted by the Uttar Pradesh ATS in June last year.
According to Law Beat, Shivani Jaiswal, a special NIA/ATS judge, refused to grant relief to Umar Gautam, citing the serious nature of the charges against him and the fact that he is the key accused in the First Information Report (FIR).
Court noted that Gautam is alleged to be indulged in criminal conspiracy with the syndicate which by identifying the weaker sections of the society, minor children, women and persons, creates a feeling of hatred in their minds towards their religion and faith. pic.twitter.com/Akxcxveur3
— LawBeat (@LawBeatInd) May 9, 2022
The court also stated that Umar Gautam is accused of participating in a criminal conspiracy with the syndicate by identifying the vulnerable sections of society, including children, women, and individuals, and instilling hatred in their minds towards their religion and faith.
Mohammed Umar Gautam claimed in his bail application that he had been wrongly accused of the crime and that the ATS lacked valid evidence against him. He had contended that the religious conversions he had facilitated were his right, which the Constitution had granted him as part of his fundamental rights.
He further asserted that all religious conversions were performed only after due legal processes were completed and that no family member of a speech or hearing impaired converted individual has complained that any conversion was performed unlawfully or forcibly, as is being claimed.
Meanwhile, the ATS had vehemently opposed Umar’s bail application, claiming that he is the kingpin of this syndicate, which runs an organization called Islamic Dawah Center in Jamia Nagar, New Delhi, and that, according to documents received, he has converted approximately 1,000 non-Muslims from Uttar Pradesh and other states to Islam.
ATS had submitted that Gautam’s organization receives foreign funds which are being used for changing country’s demographics by converting a large number of people and creating mutual animosity and hatred among different sections. @ISalilTiwari reportshttps://t.co/dJ0NbHjxir
— LawBeat (@LawBeatInd) May 9, 2022
The ATS further submitted before the court that Umar Gautam’s organization receives foreign funds that are utilized to change the country’s demographics by converting a large number of people and promoting mutual animosity and hatred among different sections.
ATS contended that as a result of these unlawful activities, the state’s law and order situation is deteriorating, and the country’s unity, sovereignty, and security are jeopardized. ATS further told the court that evidence of unlawful conversions of 115 people in Uttar Pradesh has already been gathered.
Based on the arguments presented by both parties, the Lucknow court rejected the bail plea of Mohammed Umar Gautam.
In June 2021, the Uttar Pradesh ATS arrested two men identified as Mohammed Umar Gautam and Mufti Qazi Jehangir involved in illegal religious conversions. According to police, women, and physically challenged children were their targets. The duo was arrested in the Jamia Nagar area in Delhi.
Ever since the duo has been arrested for operating a mass conversion racket in Uttar Pradesh, shocking details have emerged with regards to the modus operandi employed by the two to target non-Muslims and bring them into the fold of Islam.
The two accused, who ran an organization named Islamic Dawah Centre(IDC), along with their other associates, were charged for mass conversion of people into Islam through allurements such as marriage, jobs and money, and mental pressure.
Mohammad Umar Gautam received funds from Pakistan’s ISI and India’s most wanted terrorist Hafiz Saeed
The Islamic Dawah Centre(IDC) received heavy funding from the Middle East countries for their operations of carrying out religious conversions in India. Not just from the Muslim countries in the Gulf, but the duo also allegedly received funding from Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence(ISI), the police have stated. It was also reported then that sources within the Uttar Pradesh police had confirmed that they suspect the conversion racket run by Mufti Qazi Jahangir Qasmi and Mohammad Umar Gautam had funding from India’s most wanted terrorist and Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief Hafiz Saeed.
Umar Gautam and Jahangir converted over 1000 people to Islam: Police
The Anti Terror Squad (ATS) said Umar Gautam had allegedly converted over 1,000 people to Islam and got many of them married to Muslims to prevent the possibility of their relapse to their earlier faith.
Umar Gautam who is a convert himself had also revealed that they converted around 250-300 people every year. During the interrogation, Umar also informed that they targeted people from the economically weaker section of the society including women, children, and the disabled. They were also getting the women married so that they do not return to their original faith.
