The Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) in collaboration with Delhi Police on Tuesday conducted joint searches of four properties of 64-year-old Maulana Kalim, a cleric arrested last month for his alleged involvement in an illegal conversion racket.
Police claimed to have recovered important documents and electronic gadgets from two houses of Kalim and two offices of the trust, Jamiat Imam Waliullah. Shaheen Bagh in New Delhi.
The trust is run by a cleric, the police added.
With a copy of the court’s permission, the ATS team along with Delhi Police officials reached Kalim’s homes and offices and seized several desktops, laptops and documents during the ensuing search operation.
A senior official said the recovered documents and electronic devices would be examined during further investigation.
So far 15 people have been arrested in connection with the busting of an alleged conversion racket in June. Five of those arrested in the case are from Maharashtra.
The cleric was arrested by the ATS on September 22 after his name cropped up during the investigation. The police had said that the investigation revealed that the Maulana was involved in illegal conversions across the country through purported fronts posing as educational and social organizations and was receiving funds from foreign countries for the same.
During their investigation, the ATS officials claimed to have collected evidence to support that around Rs 20 crore was deposited in various bank accounts in the name of trust run by Kaleem.
The authorities are currently collecting details of properties owned by Kaleem and also trying to identify the persons who had funded the alleged conversion racket.
The ATS said on September 26 that they had arrested three more people, identified as Mohd Salim, Mohd Idris Qureshi and Kunal Ashok Choudhary alias Atif, of Muzaffarnagar, based on information received during interrogation of the cleric.
Police had taken permission from a court to take Idris into police custody for four days from Tuesday.
The ATS arrested Dheeraj Jagtap alias Dhiraj Deshmukh, a resident of Maharashtra, on 1 October for not giving satisfactory answers during interrogation in Lucknow. Police said Dheeraj had converted to Islam about a week ago. On the request of the ATS, the court sent Dheeraj to seven days’ police custody.
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