Lucknow illegal conversion case: Maulana Kalim Siddiqui, Umar Gautam and 12 other convicts sentenced to life imprisonment

In the Lucknow illegal conversion case, the Special NIA-ATS Court has sentenced Maulana Umar Gautam and Maulana Kalim Siddiqui along with 12 other accused to life imprisonment after finding them guilty. The court has sentenced the other 4 accused Rahul Bhola, Mannu Yadav, Kunal Ashok Chaudhary and Salim to 10 years of imprisonment along with fine as per the sections imposed on them. The court had convicted all of them yesterday and announced the sentence today.

NIA ATS court judge Vivekanand Sharan Tripathi convicted all of them under sections 417, 120b, 153a, 153b, 295a, 121a, 123 of the Indian Penal Code and sections 3, 4, and 5 of the Illegal Conversion Act. Under these sections, the accused are punished with imprisonment ranging from 10 years to life imprisonment. There were a total of 17 accused in this case of illegal conversion, out of which 16 have been convicted. The 17th accused Idris Qureshi has got a stay from the Allahabad High Court.

Maulana Kalim Siddiqui, a resident of Fulat village in Ratanpuri police station area of ​​Muzaffarnagar, after completing 12th from Pickett Inter College, did his BSc from Meerut College. After this, he started doing MBBS from a medical college in Delhi. He left MBBS and became an Islamic scholar. Maulana had made Shaheen Bagh in Delhi his hideout for 18 years. Maulana Kalim Siddiqui was arrested by Uttar Pradesh ATS on the night of 22 September 2021 between Daurala-Mataur on Delhi-Dehradun Highway.

He and his associates were arrested for running a large-scale illegal conversion syndicate. After remaining in jail for 562 days, Kaleem was granted bail by the Allahabad High Court in April 2023. The Uttar Pradesh government challenged this decision of the High Court in the Supreme Court. Further hearing began in the apex court, in which conditions were imposed on Kaleem Siddiqui’s bail. The Supreme Court banned Siddiqui’s activities. He was barred from leaving the NCR and the court also directed him to keep his phone’s location always on so that the investigating officer can track him.

Maulana Kalim Siddiqui established his Jamia Imam Waliullah Islamia Madrasa in 1991. He established the school to conduct courses in the village, but later handed it over to an institution in Kerala.