Religious conversion racket: UP ATS arrests two associates of Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui

In a recent update to the illegal religious conversion case, Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) has arrested two people identified as Mohammad Idrees Qureshi and Mohammad Salim from Muzaffarnagar. The accused arrested are known to be the associates of Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui, who was arrested earlier in connection to the case. According to Uttar Pradesh ATS, Siddiqui told in the interrogation that they used to get a lot of money from the operatives abroad for religious conversions. While Atif alias Kunal Chowdhary who was one of Siddiqui's associates working for the past 2 years, was arrested from the Anand Nagar area of Nashik. UP ATS arrests Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui On September 22, Islamic scholar Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui was arrested by the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorist Squad over the charges of religious conversion. The 64-year-old Islamic scholar is one of the biggest clerics from western UP whose name popped up during the investigation into the Umar Gautam case. He was nabbed in Meerut and is currently being interrogated by UP Police. He was on the radar of security agencies due to suspicious activities. Addressing the press conference, Uttar Pradesh ADG (Law and Order) Prashant Kumar, had informed, "Investigation shows Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui runs Jamia Imam Waliullah trust that funds several madrassas for which he received huge foreign funding. Investigation shows Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui’s trust received Rs 3 crores in foreign funding, including Rs 1.5 from Bahrain. Six teams of ATS have been formed to investigate this case". While Aam Aadmi Party MLA from Delhi’s Okhla, Amanatullah Khan, who was participating in the Shaheen Bagh protests, termed the arrest “atrocity on Muslims.” Illegal religious conversion The Uttar Pradesh police in June had arrested Umar Gautam along with eight others for allegedly running a religious conversion racket. Following the arrest, the UP Police had informed that the racket involved the conversion of deaf children and women to Islam and more than 1,000 people were converted. Police statement further said that more than a dozen deaf and dumb children in Noida were also converted. The police said that during the interrogation, the arrested accused confessed to converting nearly 250 to 300 people every year. (With ANI inputs) (Image: PTI)

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Religious conversion racket: UP ATS arrests two associates of Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui

Uttar Pradesh ATS arrested two associates of Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui from Muzaffarnagar in connection with the religious conversion racket case.

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