The Uttar Pradesh Police busted a gang involved in a conversion racket at the ongoing Magh Mela on the bank of Sangam here on Tuesday.
Three people have been arrested and several books and other materials from were recovered their possession, confirmed Additional CP Satish Chandra.
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The police said the accused were distributing religious books as well as objectionable literature at the fair area. The arrested accused included the mastermind of the racket who is a madrasa teacher named Mahmood Hasan Ghazir. Over 204 religious books, Aadhaar cards, mobile and other items have been recovered from their possession.
The police claimed that during interrogation, Mahmood Hasan confessed that he used to get funds from Abu Dhabi for this work. He runs an organisation named Badme Paigame Bahdaniyat.
They used to click pictures and take addresses of all those to whom they gave these books and later gave this information to someone in Abu Dhabi.
Police officers said that they received the information that some people are trying to spoil the atmosphere in Magh Mela by distributing Islamic religious books. When they reached the spot, two youths were found indulging with books related to Hindu religion kept on top and the books related to Islam on a large scale right below them.
When interrogated, they identified themselves as Ashish Kumar Gupta and Naresh Kumar Saroj. However, on being searched after bringing to the police station, both of them were found to be Muslim named Mohammad Monish and Sameer.
They revealed that they were doing this work at the behest of Ghazi, a teacher of Islamia Himdadia Madrasa located in Pooramufti, and they were paid for this work.
The police said among the arrested accused Mohd. Monish and Sameer were also associated with the Islamic organisation. Monish is the zonal secretary of the Eastern UP unit of the Student Islamic Organisation while Sameer is its active member.
According to the police, both have told during interrogation that they were doing this work for a long time and used to get Rs 5000 every month. They also disclosed that Ghazi used to ask them to distribute this literature mostly around Hindu religious places.