UP religious conversion racket: All you need to know about mastermind Chhangur Baba

The Uttar Pradesh Police's Anti-Terrorism Squad arrested the alleged mastermind of a religious conversion gang along with his aide recently.

Jalaluddin alias Chhangur Baba and co-accused Neetu alias Nasreen are residents of Madhpur in Balrampur district.

The Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) secured a week-long custody of Jalaluddin alias Chhangur Baba on Wednesday.

Here is all you need to know about Chhangur Baba:

Jamaluddin alias Chhangur Baba is accused of targeting girls from several communities and even maintained a 'rate list' for conversions, officials said.

Chhangur Baba used to sell rings and amulets on his bicycle and later became the head of the village. He is from Uttar Pradesh's Rehra Mafi village.

Later he is said to have lured many including poor pepe, labourers and widowed women in promise of incentives, financial help and even marriage for religious conversion.

Now, Chhangur Baba has 40 bank accounts and has funds worth Rs 106 crore, as per a report by NDTV. He has received the funds mainly from the Middle East.

Along with this Chhangur Baba also has two properties which is said to be in crores of worth.

Chhangur Baba and co-accused Neetu had built a building in Madhpur which was illegal and was recently bulldozed by the authorities.

There were two sections in the building where in one section he stayed with his family.

The second section however was allegedly kept for making a hospital, but the later plans suggest that a school or college was planned to be built.

However, nothing was built there and the report stated that its not clear for what the building was used, adding that there were 15 CCTV cameras and 2 dogs in the building.

The district administration has removed around 80 per cent of illegal constructions on government land allegedly encroached upon by Chhangur Baba.

Four people had been arrested in connection with the case. While Chhangur Baba and Nasreen were arrested last Saturday, two other co-accused, Naveen alias Jamaluddin and Jalaluddin's son Mehboob, were arrested in April.

The police have alleged that the accused acted in an organised manner to convert individuals from Hindu and other non-Muslim communities to Islam.

(With PTI inputs)