Three Arrested From Nagpur By UP ATS In Connection With Dr Umar Gautam ‘Conversion Case’

The Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) has arrested three persons from Maharashtra’s Nagpur on Friday in connection with the religious conversion case filed against Islamic preachers Maulana Umar Gautam and Mufti Qazi Jahangir Alam Qasmi, under UP’s “anti-conversion law”. 

Those arrested were identified as Prasad Rameshwar Kavale alias Adam (from Nagpur), Kausar Alam Shaukat Ali Khan (from Jharkhand) and Bhupriya Bando Devidas Mankar, a police official said.

According to the police, the three of them were in touch with Umar Gautam and involved in ‘conversion activities’. 

On June 28, the UP ATS had detained three others– Irfan Khawaja Khan from Maharashtra who is an expert for the deaf-mute sign language, Munnu Yadav alias Abdul Mannan, a convert from Haryana, and Rahul Bhola, a deaf from Delhi, under the same case. 

Dr Mohammad Umar Gautam and Mufti Qazi Jahangir Qasmi were arrested based on an FIR accusing them of converting deaf children and women to Islam. However, their arrest had drawn severe criticism from Muslim community leaders, who questioned the allegations against the Islamic preachers, saying that propagating one’s religion is a constitutional right and that conversion is not a crime.

The arrests made in Maharashtra were in this connection, the ADG Prashant Kumar said, adding that the arrested persons are being brought to the state capital by road and will be produced before the court. 

‘Constitution gives Right to Propagate Religion’: Muslims denounced Umar Gautam’s Arrest

Denouncing the arrest of Umar and Qasmi, Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH) Vice President Prof. Mohammad Salim Engineer said, “in a democratic country, who can force someone to change his religion? Islam does not allow it at all. Our Constitution gives every citizen the right to choose, practice and propagate the religion of his choice. No one can deprive him of this right.”

“It is pertinent to mention that a  vicious campaign is being run by vested interests to defame  Islam and project Muslims as anti-national, Muslims are used as scapegoats to create false narratives and to divert the attention from the main issues, All India Dawah Centres Association (AIDCA) said in a statement. 

Tweeting about the arrest, the Former chairman of the Delhi Minorities Commission Zafarul Islam Khan said “Umar Gautam has been sent to jail in Lucknow. He converted to Islam early in his life when he found that while people close to him deserted him in his ailment, Muslim friends stood with him. He is accused of converting people to Islam. Conversion is not a crime – it is allowed”.

“No question of forceful conversion by him. He is a nice person, a good Samaritan. I have known him for close to 3 decades. ATS claims about his “ISI links” are bogus, will fall by the wayside. Look at hundreds of acquittals in recent decades,” he further said.

Delhi Waqf Board Chairman and AAP MLA Amantullah Khan called the arrest “an attack on our constitutional rights”.

“In the upcoming Uttar Pradesh elections, the BJP wants to protect its sinking ship using unconstitutional methods by hook or by crook. The BJP government should stop misusing the law and the constitution and they must release those who were arrested unconstitutionally,” tweeted Khan.