Noida: The founder of Noida Deaf Society (NDS), a vocational school for the disabled whose students were allegedly targeted for mass religious conversions by two Delhi-based men, was questioned at length by police on Tuesday.
Ruma Roka, who had earlier denied the role of the institute in the conversion racket, told TOI two teachers accused by the cops of being part of the conversion scheme, including a woman, were earlier employed with the institute.
“We allowed people from all faiths to work with us, but they misused our database to contact the students.
NDS is a well-known organisation,” Roka said.
“The two teachers are no longer on our payroll.
One of them (the woman) was relieved of her services in 2020 due to poor performance.
We had no idea that she had converted.
How was I to know what they had been doing after school? The other teacher was also asked to leave because of poor performance.
He left in 2019 before the lockdown,” said Roka.
ADG (law and order) Prashant Kumar told TOI, “We will not harass anyone, but if someone is found involved, that person will be questioned and action will be taken.
It seems to be a big racket and the role of all those involved in data sharing and influencing the youth is being probed.” The Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) of UP Police had on Monday claimed to have busted a racket involving illegal conversion of people from the economically weaker sections and children with speech and hearing disabilities from other religions to Islam.
According to ATS, the main accused — Mohammed Umar Gautam, himself is a convert and a resident of the Batla House area and Mufti Kazi Jahangir Qasmi, chairman of Islamic Dawah Center (IDC) at Jamia Nagar – have been involved in converting of around 1,000 people.
The family of a 24-year-old man enrolled at NDS told TOI he had left his home in Kanpur on March 10 this year and returned on June 20.
When he left, he had packed all his clothes and academic certificates with him, the family claimed, adding they had learnt he was in Kerala and had been in touch with “a teacher” – believed to be the male teacher who Roka said was removed in 2019.
The family claimed this teacher met the boy in Kanpur and the two had stayed in touch over the phone.
Speaking to TOI, the boy’s mother said they had started noticing a change in their son’s behaviour.
“He would lock his phone so that we couldn’t see it,” she said.
The boy’s father is a lawyer and the mother a teacher at a special school for the deaf and mute.
The mother said when Ramzan started, he would eat only in the evening.
It was then that the family started questioning him and realised what was going on.
When questioned, the boy expressed a wish to embrace Islam.
Outside the NDS office in Noida in Sector 117, members of an outfit calling itself Jansankhya Samadhan Foundation, meanwhile, gathered outside the NDS campus and raised slogans.
Gabbar Chauhan, who was leading the outfit, claimed the demonstration was against the conspiracy to convert gullible youths.
Refuting the allegations, Manish, who works at NDS, said, “The arrested accused have never visited the society.
Many programmes for the deaf and dumb are organised here.
This is a matter of investigation.
There are many students who study at the NDS as the society has been running since 2005.” Police were deployed outside NDS after the protest.