Police bust 'conversion racket' operated via gaming app

Ghaziabad (Uttar Pradesh): The Uttar Pradesh police arrested one person and claimed to have busted a racket in Ghaziabad, which allegedly used an online gaming application to target children and teenagers and entice them to change their religion, officials said on Monday.

According to the police, the gang's modus operandi was to target children through an online game.

A cleric at a mosque in Sanjay Nagar area in Ghaziabad was arrested on Sunday, police said adding that a hunt has been launched to nab the second accused, who hails from Thane in Maharashtra.

"On May 30, a case of religious conversion was registered at Kavi Nagar Police Station, in which two people were named and were identified as Shahnawaz Khan alias Baddo, a resident of Thane, Maharashtra and Nanni alias Abdul Rehman, a Maulvi at a mosque in Sanjay Nagar area. Rehman has been arrested," said Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Ghaziabad, Nipun Agarwal.

"During an investigation, the role of Rehman in the conversion of a minor Jain boy and two Hindu boys was found and police have seized electronic evidence and affidavits related to it," the DCP of Ghaziabad City said.

According to the police official, the modus operandi was to target teenagers through the online game, which required users to recite verses from the Quran in order to win.

According to the DCP, the teenage gamers were also shown videos of radical Muslim preachers Zakir Naik and Tariq Jameel. Naik an accused in numerous cases related to money laundering and spreading hatred fled the country in 2016.

"The accused also used to talk with the gamers (children) through a chat application and there they were shown videos of Zakir Naik and Tariq Jameel to persuade them to convert," DCP Ghaziabad City said.

The DCP said a team has been sent to Maharashtra to nab the accused Shahnawaz Khan. Further investigation is underway.

(ANI)