NOIDA: The Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) is examining a few videos where one of the two men arrested for alleged conversions of over 1,000 people talks about how some youths had changed their religion.
The ATS is now preparing a list of all those who were named by Mohammed Umar Gautam in the videos that have now surfaced.
In one of the videos, Umar claims that around 1,000 people had converted.
The video shows Umar making a speech at a university forum.
He talks about seven persons he had “assisted” in converting their religion.
“God gave me the ability.
I invited my friends to that university and seven of them converted.
One of them was a friend from Gorakhpur.
He said when Gautam sahib (Umar Gautam) could become Umar, so could he.
I named him Mohammed Usman.
At the Dawah centre, the formalities of over 1,000 persons have been completed,” he says in the video.
“In today’s date, an MSc-BEd student from Kanpur has given an ad for changing her religion.
There are many cases like that.
We are trying to help such people so that they get moral and legal support.
There are many people, in India and abroad.
Like Poland, Portugal, Germany, Singapore, the US and UK.
Many people have sought legal assistance and their court cases have been taken forward,” Umar adds.
In another video, Umar can be heard talking about the conversion of two girls from Lucknow and a youth from Darbhanga.
“When people come here, they have to be sent to jamaat….
Here too, one youth from Darbhanga in Bihar is taking lessons at the Jagadhri Darul-uloom.
One girl, who has completed her BSc and is taking coaching for IAS, told me her legal documentation and gazette notification was done.
Today, everything is online and we must try to spread the message…,” he says.
A senior ATS officer said they were verifying the names mentioned by Umar in his speeches and preparing a list.
“The names have been recovered from the accused and a list is being prepared.
All will be traced soon,” the officer said.
The ATS is not only verifying the list of students but also of teachers of different schools for the deaf and mute in Delhi-NCR.
Ruma Roka, the founder of the Noida Deaf Society who had earlier denied the role of the institute in the conversion racket, has said the two teachers accused by the cops of being a part of the conversion scheme, including a woman, had left the institute in 2019 and 2020.
ADG (law and order) Prashant Kumar told TOI they were in the process of collecting more evidence to substantiate the charge that the conversions were done by coercion.
Meanwhile, the daughter of Umar Gautam, who had himself converted to Islam in 1984, told mediapersons she was convinced her father had done no wrong.
“…whatever he has done is for uplifting the community in a legal manner… and in a positive way.
There is no evidence that any of them were converted forcefully.
When he got them converted, he was impressed by their etiquettes,” she said..