6 more held over ‘religious conversion’ case in Bharuch
On November 15, Amod police had registered an offence under Gujarat Freedom for Religion Bill
3 min read
The accused arrested on Thursday were identified as Yakub Ibrahim Shanker from Patan, Rizwan Mehboob Patel from Palej, Thakorbhai Girdharbhai Vasava, Sajid Mohammed Patel, Yusuf Patel, all residents of Amod Taluka and Ayub Bashir Patel, from Jambusar. (Representational)Bharuch police on Thursday arrested six more accused in the case of alleged forced religious conversion of Hindu tribals into Muslims. With this, the total number of arrests in connection with the case has reached 10.
The accused arrested on Thursday were identified as Yakub Ibrahim Shanker from Patan, Rizwan Mehboob Patel from Palej, Thakorbhai Girdharbhai Vasava, Sajid Mohammed Patel, Yusuf Patel, all residents of Amod Taluka and Ayub Bashir Patel, from Jambusar.
On November 15, Amod police had registered an offence under Gujarat Freedom for Religion Bill, section 4 and IPC sections 120(b), 153 (B) (c), and 506 (2), on a complaint by Praveen Vasava of Kakariya village in Amod taluka of Bharuch district against nine accused.
In his complaint, Vasava said that the accused people “lured innocent Hindu tribals of the village with money and in some cases built houses for them and converted them into Islam”. The converted Hindu tribals were later entrusted with the task of converting others from the community, it added.
Bharuch police said that the accused arrested Thursday had collected a total of Rs 14 lakh funds through donations from foreign countries, out of which Rs 7 lakh was collected by Rizwan Patel from a person named Ismail from Bahrain.
Bharuch Deputy Superintendent of Police M P Bhojani said, “During investigations, we have found that Yakub Shanker and Rizwan Patel, had collected funds to the tune of Rs 14 lakh to be used for constructing Ibadatgah (prayer house) and to distribute cash to the tribals to lure them for religious conversion.”
The accused had not taken permission from the Bharuch district collector for such religious conversion.
“Thakorbhai Vasava played an important role in conversion of Hindu tribals into Muslims. Sajid Patel and Yusuf Patel are members of the Baitulmaal trust in Achhod village and they have received donations of Rs 3.71 lakh from Salauddin Shaikh of Afmi Charitable trust in Vadodara. This amount was used for religious conversion. Abdul Bashir Patel of Jambusar who is also a member of Mohammedi Mosque in the village, takes newly converted tribals to the mosque and teaches them about the religion,” adds Bhojani.
On November 17, following Vasava’s complaint, police had arrested Abdul Aziz Patel (Ajitbhai Chhagan Vasava), Yusuf Jivan Patel (Mahendra Jivan Vasava), Ayub Barkat Patel (Raman Barkat Vasava), Ibrahim Punabhai Patel (Jitubhai Punabhai Vasava) all residents of Kakariya village in Amod taluka, while five others identified as Shabbir Bakerywala (Amod), Samaj Bakerywala (Amod), Hasan Tisli (Achhod village), Fefdawala Haji Abdulla (Nabipur) and Ismail Achhodwala (Maulvi from Anchod village) are absconding.
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