Conversion 'Racket' Case | UP Court Sentences Umar Gautam, Kaleem Siddiqui & 10 Others To Life Imprisonment

Addl. District & Sessions Judge Lucknow Viveka Nand Sharan Tripathi sentenced Maulana Umar Gautam, Mohd Kaleem Siddiqui, and ten others to life imprisonment for their convictions under Sections 417, 153-A, 153-B, 295A, 121, and 123 of the IPC and sections of the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act. Four others were sentenced to ten years of rigorous imprisonment. A detailed Judgment is awaited.

Kaleem Siddiqui and others had been charged of running a mass religious conversion racket through several organisations and schools he funded and by receiving funding from international organisations.

He was arrested by the anti-terrorist squad of Uttar Pradesh police in September 2021. Besides forcible conversions, he had also been charged of promoting enmity between different religious groups and disturbing India's sovereignty and integrity.

Siddiqui was accused of being the linchpin of a nationwide network of operatives working towards the objective of waging war against the Indian Constitution and replacing it with Sharia law.

It was also the case of the prosecution that Siddiqui had links with a large-scale illegal conversion racket and that he not only performed conversions but also gave money to madrassas for illegal conversions.

The case of the prosecution against Umar Gautam was that he used psychological pressure for forceful conversions as part of their plan to set up an Islamic state and received funding from different countries to carry out conversions.

It had also been claimed that Gautam was involved in promoting enmity between different groups of religions and disturbing the sovereignty and integrity of India by influencing the non-Muslim sects to convert and embrace Islam.

Gautam and his aides were charged with targetting the weaker sections of the Society, children, women and the people belonging to Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes. It was the charge of the prosecution that their object and goal were to change the demography of the country by converting the citizens from one religion to another religion and to disturb the peace and tranquillity of society, and to disturb the public order.