Three men held for running forcible conversion racket remanded to police custody

Three men arrested for their alleged roles in a nationwide illegal religious conversion racket were on Monday remanded in police custody for seven days by an anti-terror court here.

The Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorist Squad on Monday said the police remand of the trio was secured to interrogate them to ascertain the source of their funding.

Identified as Muzaffarnagar resident Mohammad Idris and Mohammad Saleem and nashi native Kunal Ashok Chaudhary alias Aatif, the three were arrested on September 26 and a plea had been made to the court for their police remand, the ATS said in a statement.

After hearing the prosecution plea, a special court, set up for trying cases probed by the NIA and ATS, remanded the three to seven-day police custody on Monday, the ATS said.

The three, all accomplices of Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui of Meerut arrested on September 21, were arrested as part of the ongoing investigation into a nationwide, illegal religious conversion racket, unravelled after the arrests of Maulana Umar Gautam and his two other accomplices in June this year from Jamia Nagar in the national capital.

During the remand period, the ATS plans to interrogate the trio as to how a huge amount of money got transferred into their accounts, the statement said, adding they would also be questioned about the property acquired by them.

Detailed questioning about other persons involved in forcible religious conversion racket will also be done, and for this, teams have been formed, the ATS said.