LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorist Squad (UPATS) filed a chargesheet against four accused of illegal conversions at the court of chief judicial magistrate, Lucknow, on Wednesday. All four — Rameshwar Kawade, Kausar Alam, Bhupriyo Bando and Faraz Shah — are accused of luring and forcibly converting people to Islam in Maharashtra.
They have been booked under Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion and charged with dishonesty, promoting enmity between groups, assertions prejudicial to national integration, deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings. Of 16 persons arrested so far, chargesheet has been filed against 10, including the Maharashtra quartet.
Inspector general of police, ATS, Gajendra Goswamy, said, the accused along with the mastermind, Umar Gautam, and other global players formed a syndicate to convert people to Islam. Rameshwar Kawade confessed during interrogation that they were tasked to convert at least five persons per day. Evidence on this count has also been collated, said Goswamy.
The chargesheet also states the quartet targeted economically weaker people, women and disabled by luring and intimidating them to embrace Islam. “Workshops were regularly conducted on ways to convert the gullible and there’s evidence linking radicalized converts to antinational and jihadi perpetrators,” said Goswamy.
ATS officer also said, people of a particular faith were intimidated with concepts of “hellfire in afterlife”. “The syndicate was funded from abroad and concrete evidence has been gathered. Around Rs 57 crore was mobilised by Umar Gautam and his associates from UK-based organization Al-Fala Trust through hawala and other means,” said the IG, ATS.
Electronic evidence recovered from accused Kausar Alam, Rameshwar Kawade also show their inclination to “jihadist principles propounded by religious preachers linked to terror outfits like Al-Qaeda”.
IG ATS also said, Kawade’s wife Maihasan Ali was an Egyptian and was a key link between Umar Gautam and their members based in Egypt and the Gulf. Bhuriya Bando alias Arslan was skilled in hizama therapy (cupping therapy) and funded religious conversions in Maharashtra, while Alam is a seed businessman and helped spread the network in Karnataka and Maharashtra.
Investigations are continuing against the other six accused — Dheeraj, Sarfaraz Ali Zafri, cleric Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui, Idris, Atif, and Irfan.
