The Enforcement Directorate on Saturday conducted searches at six places in the national capital and Uttar Pradesh in connection with a case of suspected conversion of hearing impaired students and poor people to Islam with purported funding from abroad.
The searches came following the ED registering a criminal case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) based on an FIR registered by the Uttar Pradesh Police's Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS).
The ED said in a statement that searches were conducted at three locations each in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh.
The premises searched included the office of Islamic Dawah Centre, as well as residences of Mufti Qazi Jahangir Alam Qasmi and Mohammad Umar Gautam in Delhi.
The ED also searched the offices of Al Hassan Education and Welfare Foundation in Lucknow and Guidance Education and Welfare Society in Sant Kabir Nagar.
Gautam has been associated with all these organisations and has been "playing an instrumental role in carrying out illegal conversions", the ED claimed.
The Uttar Pradesh Police had earlier arrested two Delhi residents , Mufti Qazi Jahangir Alam Qasmi and Mohammad Umar Gautam, alleging that they run an organisation, Islamic Dawah Centre, which receives funds from Pakistan's spy agency ISI and other foreign agencies for conversion of people.
Altogether, ATS has arrested six persons in the case, in which it claimed that "more than a thousand people" were reportedly lured with offers of money, jobs, and marriage and converted to Islam.
According to UP Police, one of the accused Salauddin Sheikh allegedly sent hawala money to Umar to fund the conversion.
(Published 03 July 2021, 08:49 IST)
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