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Indore: The Indore district administration in Madhya Pradesh has issued an arrest order under the stringent National Security Act against a Congress councillor absconding in a case of indulging in a conspiracy to carry out religious conversion through monetary considerations, an official said on Tuesday.
District Magistrate Ashish Singh has issued an order to arrest Congress councillor Anwar Qadri alias Dacoit under the NSA with the aim of maintaining public peace and law and order, he said.
Eighteen criminal cases are registered against Qadri in different police stations of the city, officials said.
One of these cases was registered last month, in which the Congress councillor is accused of being involved in a conspiracy to convert people with the power of money.
Officials said that a Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) has also announced a reward of Rs 10,000 for the arrest of Qadri in this case.
A police official said that two men in the city - Sahil Sheikh and Altaf Shah - had allegedly admitted during their police interrogation that Qadri had given them a total of Rs 3 lakh to convert girls by luring them into love traps and that they had spent this amount on the girls.
Sheikh and Shah were arrested in separate cases on the charges of raping two girls and other charges.
Based on the statements given by both of them, a case was registered against Qadri for his involvement in a conspiracy to convert people through money.
After this case was registered, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had accused the Congress councillor of operating a 'love jihad' gang and demanded his arrest under the NSA.
The term 'love jihad' is used by right-wing organisations to allege a concerted effort by Muslim men to convert Hindu women to Islam.