The Enforcement Directorate on Friday filed a case under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in connection with the religious conversion racket that was busted by the Uttar Pradesh ATS.
The official sources said that the probe would focus on the allegation that illegal money was received from foreign and domestic sources and money laundering was carried out by the accused and his associates. The agency has the power to attach the properties of the accused during investigation and subsequently file a chargesheet before the PMLA court for trial and punishment between three and seven years as prescribed under the law.
Sources told The Daily Guardian that it has been revealed in the interrogation that in the last one-and-a-half years, Umar Gautam converted 33 people through the Islamic Dawa Centre.
The details reveal that in the last one-and-a-half year, under the signature of Mufti Qazi Jehangir Alam Qasmi, 33 people were converted between 7 January 2020 and 12 May 2021.Of these, 18 were women and 15 men.
Talking about the states, 14 people from Delhi, 9 from Uttar Pradesh, 3 from Bihar, 2 from MP and 1 each from Gujarat, Maharashtra, Assam, Jharkhand and Kerala.
Among the 33 people whose conversion details came to light, only one person, a resident of Khurja in Bulandshahr in UP, was the least educated sixth pass, who recently converted at the age of 28 on 8 June 2021.
The 33 people whose conversion details have come to light so far include mostly educated people, ranging from those with government jobs, to teachers, MBA pass-outs, senior software engineer, Delhi’s hospital staff nurse and an MBBS doctor from Gujarat. Everyone has also attached an affidavit with the prescribed conversion form of Islamic Dawa Centre, in which they are saying in writing that they leave their original religion without any greed and accept Islam. The last conversion done by Qazi Mufti Jahangir Qasmi at the Islamic Dawa Centre took place on 12 June 2021. After 7 days, UP ATS arrested Jahangir Qasmi.
Umar Gautam, 57, and Jahangir Alam, 52, both residents of Jamia Nagar in New Delhi, were arrested by the UP Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) on Monday for their alleged involvement in large-scale illegal conversions of people to Islam in UP and other parts of the country.
The ATS claimed that the racket was allegedly funded by international organisations, including Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI, for the conversion of specially-abled children and other vulnerable groups of society. The accused were involved in conversion of over 1,000 people.