The Anti-Terrorist Squad of India's Uttar Pradesh state has arrested a prominent Islamic cleric and President of the Global Peace Centre Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui from Meerut city on charges of alleged religious conversion.
The 64-year-old cleric is also the president of Jamaat-e-Waliullah, a trust that funds several madrassas, according to the police.
During a press conference on Wednesday, the police revealed that they arrested Siddiqui on Tuesday night when he was returning to his native Muzaffarnagar after attending a function.
Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) Inspector General G.K. Goswami said that the syndicate had "converted around 1,000 people in India."
Kumar also said that the investigation reveals that Maulana Siddiqui's trust received over INR 30 million ($406,178) in foreign funding including over INR 15 million (about $203,075) from Bahrain. Six teams of ATS have been formed to investigate the case.
Meanwhile, Aam Aadmi Party lawmaker and Chairman of the Delhi Waqf Board Amanatullah Khan took to Twitter to criticise the arrest, saying the police were targeting Muslims, before the upcoming UP legislative assembly elections.
"Right before the election famous Islamic scholar Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui has been arrested. Atrocities on Muslims are increasing. The silence of secular parties on this issue will strengthen BJP. How low can BJP stoop to just to win the election in UP?" Khan tweeted in Hindi.
According to the police officials, Siddiqui's name came up when Mufti Qazi Jahangir Qasmi and Mohammad Umar Gautam were arrested in June this year – they were allegedly involved in the conversion of over 1,000 children and women with hearing impairment to Islam in the state's Noida city.