Lucknow: A special Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) court in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday convicted 16 people, including Islamic preacher Maulana Kalim Siddiqui and Islamic Da'wah Centre founder Mohammed Umar Gautam, in a 2021 case of an illegal religious conversion racket.

Special Judge Vivekanand Sharan Tripathi, while sending all the convicts to jail, fixed September 11 for hearing arguments on the quantum of the sentence.

A detailed order is expected on Wednesday.

Accused Were Running Outfit Involved in Converting Differently-Abled, Poor Students

The accused were running an outfit involved in converting students with hearing disabilities and poor people to Islam in Uttar Pradesh with suspected funding from Pakistan 's intelligence agency ISI, officials said.

Accused Boasts of Converting Over 1000 To Islam

Gautam lived in the Batla House of Jamia Nagar in Delhi and had converted to Islam from Hinduism. During interrogation, he boasted to the police of having converted "at least 1,000 people to Islam", luring them with marriage, money and jobs, Director General of Police Prashant Kumar, who was at the time holding charge of the ATS also, had said.

Suspected Funds from ISI, Other Foreign Agencies

The outfit they operated was named Islamic Da'wah Centre, having access to funds from Pakistan 's ISI and other foreign agencies, Kumar had told reporters.

Accused Operated Nationwide Illegal Conversion Racket by Spreading Religious Frenzy, Animosity, Hatred

According to Special Public Prosecutor M K Singh, "The accused were operating a nationwide illegal conversion racket by spreading religious frenzy, animosity and hatred as part of a conspiracy" and had international links.

Apart from Siddiqui and Gautam, the convicted include Prakash Rameshwar Kavade alias Adam, Kaushar Alam, Bhupriya Bandho alias Arsalan Mustafa, Dr. Faraz Babullah Shah, Mufti Qazi Jahangir Alam Qasmi and Irfan Sheikh alias Irfan Khan.

Gautam was held along with Mufti Qazi Jahangir Alam Qasmi from Jamia Nagar on June 20, 2021, according to UP police.

The ATS arrested the accused from different parts of the country in various operations after it lodged an FIR in Lucknow and launched an investigation into alleged illegal religious conversion and foreign funding.

Accused Charged Under Various Sections

All these accused had been charged under IPC sections 417 (cheating), 120B (criminal conspiracy), 121A (conspiracy to commit offence against the State), 123 (concealing with intent to facilitate design to wage war, 153A (promoting enmity between different groups), 153B (imputations, assertions, and insinuations with intent to promote hatred), 295A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to offend religious feelings), 298 (uttering words with intent to wound religious feelings).

They were also booked under the UP Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021.

Among the convicts were Rahul Bhola alias Rahul Ahmed, Mannu Yadav alias Abdul Mannan, Salahuddin Zainuddin Sheikh, Abdullah Umar, Mohd. Salim, Kunal Ashok Chaudhary, Dheeraj Govind Rao Jagtap and Sarfaraz Ali Jafri.

The arrests were made by the Uttar Pradesh ATS following the registration of an FIR in the case at Lucknow's ATS police station, a senior UP police officer had then said.

Money Sent Via Hawala

According to Special Public Prosecutor MK Singh, "They have international connections as well. For this, money was being sent to them from abroad through hawala. They were converting economically weak women and disabled people on a large scale to change the population balance under an organic mechanism by luring and putting undue pressure on them." "They also used to scare people of a particular religion by referring to concepts like the fire of hell in the world after death. Their aim was to establish a system of Sharia-based government in the country," Singh added.

(with PTI inputs)