ED conducts searches in Delhi, UP in PMLA case linked to alleged religious conversion, say sources

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday conducted searches at six locations in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh in a money laundering case linked to alleged conversion of some deaf students and poor people to Islam in UP with purported funding from abroad, official sources said. The raids are being conducted at the office of Islamic Dawah Centre (IDC), house of main accused in the case Mohd Umar Gautam and his associate Mufti Qazi Jahangir Alam Qasmi, in south Delhi’s Jamia Nagar area. In UP, the raids are being conducted at the offices of Al Hassan education and welfare foundation and guidance education and welfare society located in state capital Lucknow. ED officials said these organisations are run by Umar Gautam and have been playing an “instrumental role” in carrying out the alleged illegal conversions. The central probe agency had late last month filed a criminal case under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to probe this case unearthed by the Uttar Pradesh Police Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS). The officials said several “incriminating” documents have been seized during the searches, which reveal the “large-scale conversion” allegedly carried out by Umar Gautam and his organisations across India. The documents also reveal several crores of rupees of foreign funding received by the accused organisations for the purpose of illegal conversions, they claimed. The ATS had arrested Umar Gautam and Qasmi and claimed that they ran Islamic Dawah Centre, which purportedly had access to funds from Pakistan’s inter-services intelligence (ISI) and other foreign agencies to carry out their alleged illegal activities.