New Delhi: ATS has been able to get police custody of Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui of Muzaffarnagar, accused of carrying out mass conversions all over the country for 10 days.
ATS IG G.K. Goswami said the remand will begin at 10am on Friday. Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui will be taken to his institution, Global Peace Centre, located at Shaheen Bagh in New Delhi. The centre will be raided and computers, laptops and other electronic equipment and documents would be seized to examine the extent of the crime.
The IG said Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui will be taken Meerut and Muzaffarnagar after the raid in his Delhi institution is completed.
The Maulana operated Global Peace Centre as well as Jamiat-a-Imam-Waliullah Trust, which runs several madarsas in different parts of the country. Through the Global Peace Centre, Jamiat-e-Imam-Waliullah Trust and Madarsas, Maulana worked on converting non-muslims to muslims by greed or by threats.
The ATS team would also be visiting the office of the Global Peace Centre and Jamiat-e-Imam-Waliullah Trust and conduct searches there. People associated with this conversion syndicate have been identified to be in Delhi, Meerut and Muzaffarnagar. The ATS may also make some more arrests in the case. Muzaffarnagar resident Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui was arrested by the ATS from Meerut on Tuesday night.
ATS officials said 7 domestic and foreign SIM cards were recovered from Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui. Data on his mobile phone and SIM card is also being scanned. Bank accounts of Maulana's Global Peace Centre and Jamiat-e-Imam Waliullah Trust are also being investigated. Money was sent to bank accounts from Gulf countries for conversion. 3 crore has been found in his bank accounts, out of which Rs 1.5 crore was sent from Bahrain in one transaction. The amount was illegally sent to his accounts through hawala (money laundering).
Maulana Kaleem Associated With Omar Gautam's Islamic Dawah Centre
Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui was also associated with the Islamic Dawah Centre, a company owned by Omar Gautam, the mastermind of the conversion racket who was arrested a few days ago. ATS officials said that the same institutions that funded the Islamic Dawah Centre from gulf countries also paid money to Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui's trust.