Yesterday (17 January), the Uttar Pradesh police busted a racket active in converting Hindus to Islam through deceit and false propaganda. The police arrested three people in this regard, namely Mahmud Hassan Ghazi, Sameer and Mohnish.
They all were distributing texts that vilifies the Hindu religion. Mohnish and Sameer are converts to Islam, said police.
All the accused have been booked under charges of cheating and hurting religious sentiments.
Prayagraj police issued a video statement regarding the operation. Assistant Deputy Commissioner of Police (ADCP crime), Satish Chandra, said that the police arrested two men from Magh Mela in Prayagraj for circulating books that hurt the religious sentiments of Hindus. They were identified as Sameer and Monish. Both the accused were distributing books at a stall when the police arrested them. The stall had books based on Islam and Hindu texts. The books regarding Hindu texts misinterpreted verses from religious texts.
On being caught, they told the police that one Mahmud Ghazi, a madrasa teacher, provided them the books for circulation among Hindus. They intentionally targeted Hindu Dharmik places for their stalls, the men told the police.
Watch the statement below:
Sameer converted to Islam 12 years ago Monish did it two years ago, police said. Both were Hindus.
Police further said that the modus operandi of the three was that they would call the customers and would click pictures with the ones buying it. They would also take their contact numbers. All of this was done to create a database of Hindus who could later be coerced into Islam for conversion.
The officer informed that these people had installed a stall near a Hanuman temple in Prayagraj. They had earlier distributed those books at Assi Ghat in Varanasi near the famous Kashi Vishwanath temple.
The officer said that these people were receiving funds from Abu Dhabi. They would click a picture of the buyer and would send it to Ghazi, who then forwarded it to a foreigner. Then they would receive the funds. They would get 10,000 per person per picture. Ghazi hired these two men for Rs 5000 per month for this work.
The officer added the books were printed in Delhi while some were published locally. No International Standard Book Number (ISBN) numbers were allocated to these books.
As per a report by The Times of India, the three accused have been booked under IPC sections 153A (promoting enmity on grounds of religion), 295A (outraging religious feelings), 419 (cheating), 420 (cheating and dishonesty), 467 (forgery), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating), 471 (using forged documents) and 505(2) (publishing conflicting stories).
Along with these sections, sections 3 and 5 of the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion Act, 2021, loosely called the Anti-Conversion Law, has also been invoked.
A report by Amar Ujala gave details of the accused. The prime accused Ghazi is a resident of the Matinpur area of Kishandaspur which falls in the Fatehpur district of Uttar Pradesh. The other accused Mohammad Mohnish was Ashish Gupta before conversion. He is a resident of the Sudnipur Kala area in Saraiinayat, Prayagraj. The third accused Sameer, who was Naresh Kumar Soni before conversion, is a resident of the Chhota Lalpur area of Kaushambi district.
As per a report by Hindustan Times, the police seized 204 Islamic books, three mobiles, four Aadhaar cards, Rs 2600 cash and a diary from their possession.
During interrogation, Ghazi revealed that he was president of a group named Bazm-e-Paigam-e-Behdaniyat, and a teacher at Madrasa Islamia Himdadia in Mariadih village of Puramufti, Kaushambi.
The police told the media that Mohnish converted to Islam under influence of his uncle Saeed Ahmad who is also a converted Muslim. He was appointed as the eastern zonal secretary of the Student Islamic Organisation (not to be confused with SIMI, which is banned) of Uttar Pradesh.
Sameer converted to Islam after marrying a Muslim woman. He was earlier a tailor by profession but later joined the racket of conversion.
As per a report by ETV Bharat, the officer told the media that they would share the details of the racket with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). So far they have traced their links to Abu Dhabi and the CIA could track their links in other countries.
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