'Waging war against India' charged on 8 arrested for 'illegal conversion' in UP

Lucknow: Despite repeated reminding from the Supreme Court against the irrational and arbitrary applying of charges, a Lucknow court is reported to have charged a case of 'waging war against India' on eight people who have been arrested for allegedly indulging in illegal conversions on the application by the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) in UP.

ATS had arrested two Muslim clerics and six others in June accusing them of converting thousands of people, calling them a 'huge conversion racket'. The Lucknow court, accepting the ATS claims against the arrested, invoked the charges under IPC section 121-A and 123 that deal with conspiracy to commit offences punishable and concealing with intent to facilitate design to wage war.

IPC Section 121 deals with waging, or attempting to wage war, or abetting waging of war, against the Government of India. ATS had arrested Mohammad Umar Gautam and Mufti Qazi Jahageer Alam Qasm on June 21 from Delhi and others from Maharashtra, Delhi, Haryana, Gujarat, UP and Jharkhand.

ATS made a case in which the arrested have been accused of carrying out a large scale conversion of people, mostly children with disabilities, women, the unemployed, and the poor offering them a good education, marriage, jobs and money, under the banner of the Islamic Dawah Centre.

Mohammad Umar Gautam, Mufti Qazi Jahageer Alam Qasmi, Salahuddin Zainuddin Sheikh, Irfan Sheikh alias Irfan Khan, Dr Faraz, Prasad Rameshwar Kaware alias Adam, Bhupriya Bando alias Arsalan and Kausar Alam were the others who have been slapped with the stringent charges under the Section 121.

ATS claimed that it had applied for the invocation of Section 121against the arrested with the collected evidence which is enough to prosecute the accused. The next court hearing is on September 14.