Umar Gautam, 15 others convicted in mass religious conversion case

LUCKNOW Maulana Umar Gautam and 15 others, accused of illegally converting over 1,000 people to Islam across different states, were on Tuesday convicted by a Lucknow court related to cases of National Investigation Agency (NIA) and UP Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS). All the accused were sent to judicial custody and the court is likely to announce the quantum of punishment on Wednesday, said prosecution officials.

The ATS had charge-sheeted 17 people in the case. Legal proceedings against one of these accused, Idris Qureshi, were stayed by the Lucknow bench of Allahabad high court, after which his file was separated. The matter is still pending against him, said prosecution counsel MK Singh.

He said the judge of NIA/ATS court, Vivekanand Saran Tripathi, convicted them after finding them guilty under IPC sections 417 (for cheating), 153-A (for promoting disharmony, enmity or feelings of hatred on religious grounds), 153-B (for making or publishing statements that promote disharmony on religious grounds), 295A (for deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings by insulting religion or religious beliefs), 121 (for conspiring to overawe, by means of criminal force against the Central Government or any state government and 123 (for concealing facts with intent to facilitate design to wage war) as well as sections of the UP Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021.

The accused included Maulana Umar Gautam and four others - Arshan Mustafa alias Bhupriya Bando, Adam alias Prasad Rameshwaram Kovere, Abdul Mannan alias Munnu Yadav and Mohd Atif alias Kunal Ashok Choudhary. The others convicted were Mufti Qazi Jahangir Qasmi, Kaushar Alam, Faraz Babullah Shah, Irfan Sheikh, Salahuddin Zainuddin Sheikh, Dheeraj Govind, Rahul Bola, Mohd Kaleem Siddiqui, Mohd Salim, Sarfaraz Ali Jafari and Abdullah Umar, he said.

Singh said the ATS had busted the conversion racket after the arrest of Maulana Umar Gautam, chairman of Islamic Da’wah Centre operated from Delhi’s Batla House locality, along with Mufti Kazi Jahangir Kasmi, an employee of the centre, on June 20, 2021. Later, 15 others, including Umar Gautam’s son Abdullah Umar, were arrested during further investigation.

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 to Islam. According to the ATS, the racket was allegedly involved in the conversion of over 1,000 people in just two years before being busted in June 2021.

The lawyer said the ATS charge sheet stated that Maulana Umar Gautam was the kingpin of the religious conversion racket. Born in a Thakur family of Fatehpur district in 1964, Gautam embraced Islam after being influenced by Muslim friends while pursuing higher studies— BSc and MSc Agriculture— in Nainital in 1984, he added.

Officials said Umar Gautam’s original name was Shyam Prakash Singh Gautam, son of Dhanraj Singh Gautam. His family had ended ties with Shyam Prakash as he had embraced Islam nearly 37 years ago. Shyam Prakash even got his wife Rajesh Kumari converted to Muslim and changed her name.

A senior ATS official said Umar Gautam looked for vulnerable people for conversion and influenced them by narrating his own story - ‘from Thakur caste of Hindu to embracing Islam’. He used to highlight caste discrimination to influence vulnerable people and instilled hatred among them against a particular religion. He also lured people into conversion with a promise of jobs and other avenues, he added.