A day after the Bharuch police registered an FIR against nine persons for allegedly converting over 100 Hindu tribals into Islam using foreign funds, the Vadodara city police Tuesday stated it was joining the probe as the case was connected to the alleged criminal conspiracy involving Vadodara-based AFMI Charitable trust, being probed by an SIT of the Vadodara city police.
The police Tuesday said AFMI managing trustee Salahuddin Sheikh, an accused in the Vadodara police case, along with Umar Gautam of Indian Da’wah Centre (IDC) visited 1,026 places in 28 visits made to Bharuch and adjoining districts over the last year to further the “conversion” and other conspiracies.
The Bharuch police have filed an FIR against nine persons, including a UK-based native of the district, after a man from Kakariya village filed a complaint stating he was converted to Islam after being enticed with money.
Vadodara police said the trail of foreign funds and hawala transactions of AFMI trust, which are under probe, is also linked to the illegal activities in Bharuch as Sheikh facilitated “Rs 12-15 lakh sent by Abdullah Fefdawala through hawala”.
Fefdawala, a UK-based businessman, originally from Nabipur in Bharuch, has been summoned by the Vadodara SIT for interrogation after it emerged that he allegedly facilitated the hawala transactions for Sheikh through Dubai and also routed money for “Islamic activities” in Kashmir and the Indo-Nepal border areas.
“Salahuddin Sheikh, Umar Gautam and Fefdawala were part of a criminal conspiracy to execute illegal religious conversion in different states and also construct mosques in border areas of India and Pakistan along with aiding protests against CAA and NRC,” the Vadodara city police said.
