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UP ATS busts `India`s largest conversion racket`, arrests Islamic scholar Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui
The 64-year-old Islamic scholar was on the radar of security agencies due to suspicious activities. He was picked up as soon as he arrived in Meerut late Tuesday night. He is currently being interrogated by the police.
Meerut: The Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) on Wednesday claimed to have busted the country’s ''largest conversion racket'' and arrested Islamic scholar Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui from Meerut.
According to the UP ATS, Siddiqui has been arrested on charges of facilitating religious conversations. His name emerged during the investigation into the Umar Gautam case. Umar Gautam was jailed in June after the Uttar Pradesh Police rounded him up for allegedly running a conversion racket.
The 64-year-old Islamic scholar was on the radar of security agencies due to suspicious activities. He was picked up as soon as he arrived in Meerut late Tuesday night. He is currently being interrogated by the police.
According to the ATS spokesman, Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui is a resident of Phulat in Uttar Pradesh`s Muzaffarnagar. The Islamic cleric runs Jamia Imam Waliullah Trust that funds several madrassas for which Siddiqui is alleged to have received huge foreign funding, according to the police.
Uttar Pradesh Additional Director General (Law and Order), Prashant Kumar, said "Investigation shows that Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui`s trust received Rs 3 crore in foreign funding including Rs 1.5 crore from Bahrain. Six teams of ATS have been formed to investigate this case."
The syndicate has converted around 1000 people in India, Uttar Pradesh ATS Inspector-General GK Goswami said.
Mufti Qazi Jahangir Alam Qasmi and Mohammad Umar Gautam were arrested in June from Delhi`s Jamia Nagar area for trying to convert deaf students and poor people to Islam, with alleged funding from Pakistan`s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
Meanwhile, Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party has strongly condemned the arrest of the Islamic scholar. “This is wrong. The BJP government has no work other than harassing Muslims,” Samajwadi Party MP Shafiqur Rahman Barq said on the arrest of Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui by Uttar Pradesh ATS on charges of running a religious conversion syndicate.