On June 21, the Uttar Pradesh Anti Terrorist Squad arrested two Muslim clerics Mufti Kazi Jahageer Alam and Mohammad Umar Gautam from Delhi’s Jamia Nagar and accused them of running an organisation named Islamic Dawah Centre (IDC) which they said was involved in large-scale religious conversions for the past one-and-a-half years.
The Uttar Pradesh government then directed the ATS to invoke the National Security Act (NSA) and Uttar Pradesh Gangsters and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act against all those involved in what it has claimed is a “religious conversion racket”, according to reports.
As Umar continues to languish in jail, The Wire profiles the man who the police accused of conducting a large scale ‘conversion racket’.