On 21 September, the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terror Squad arrested Islamic scholar Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui, saying he was connected to a massive religious conversion syndicate, which the ATS claims to have busted in June this year.

The other accused in the matter, including Mohammad Umar Gautam and Mufti Kazi Jahangir Alam, two clerics from Delhi, have been charged with serious offences under the IPC including conspiracy to wage war against India, as well as offences under the UP Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act 2021.

According to the UP police, the conversion syndicate had received foreign funding including from the ISI to convert people to Islam, and had succeeded in converting around 1,000 people in UP.

They are alleged to have targeted children with disabilities, women, unemployed and poor persons with promises of jobs, education, marriage and money./ The Quint