Making a further breakthrough in the alleged illegal conversion racket, the sleuths of the Anti-Terrorists Squad (ATS) arrested three more people on Sunday.
Those arrested by the ATS on Sunday were identified as Salim, Idris and Kunal Ashok Chowdhary alias Atif.
According to an official communiqué released by the ATS on Sunday evening, Muzaffarnagar residents Mohammad Idris and Mohammad Salim and Kunal Ashok Chowdhary alias Atif, resident of Nashik district of Maharashtra, were arrested on charges of running a nationwide gang of illegal conversions and funding through hawala from abroad for conversion.
Idris was working as an associate of Maulana Kalim Siddiqui (already arrested) and was helping him to collect funds.
Significantly, on June 20, the UP ATS had arrested several people, including Maulana Umar Gautam, for operating an alleged illegal conversion gang. Maulana Kalim Siddiqui was also arrested in this connection on September 21 from Meerut.
The ATS claimed that accused Salim, arrested on Sunday, was collaborating with Kaleem in the work of illegal conversion for the last 17 years. Similarly, it said, Kunal Chowdhary alias Atif and Idris were also involved in conversion activities with the help of Kalim Siddiqui.
Earlier, Uttar Pradesh ATS had arrested Maulana Kalim Siddiqui from Meerut in the conversion case. Maulana Kalim Siddiqui is the head of Global Peace Centre and president of Jamiat-e-Waliullah.
After this, the UP ATS produced Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui in the court on Thursday and the court gave him a 10-day remand to the ATS. He is presently being grilled by UP ATS to extract information about the gang and its members along with the sources of their income.
The arrest of Mufti Qazi and Umar Gautam has already been made in this case. It is alleged that crores of rupees from abroad had come into the account of Kaleem Siddiqui. According to UP ATS, Rs 1.5 crore came from Bahrain in Maulana Kalim Siddiqui's account. A total of Rs 20 crore had come in his account so far from different sources.
According to the information, Maulana Kalim Siddiqui (64 years) resident of Fulat village of Muzaffarnagar is one of the biggest Islamic scholars of the country.
