'Love Jihad' Accused Says He Is A Victim, Wants To Convert Again

NDTV

21-07-2025

Agra:
A man arrested in a large-scale illegal religious conversion racket has said that he is also a victim and that he wants to convert to Hinduism again, sources told NDTV on Monday. Mohammad Ali is among 10 people who were arrested by the Uttar Pradesh Police from six states in the 'love jihad' case last Saturday.
The probe began in Agra in March after two sisters -- aged 33 and 18 -- were reported missing. Agra Police Commissioner Deepak Kumar had said preliminary investigations found that the sisters were targeted by a gang involved in ' love jihad ' and radicalisation.
"We found clues about their funding originating from the US and Canada," he had said.
. @dgpup श्री राजीव कृष्ण महोदय एवं ADG कानून-व्यवस्था उ0प्र0 श्री अमिताभ यश महोदय के निर्देशन में पुलिस आयुक्त, आगरा @DeepakKumarIPS2 के नेतृत्व में आगरा पुलिस द्वारा देश के अलग-अलग 6 राज्यों से धर्मान्तरण कराने वाले संगठित गरोह के 10 अभियुक्तों को गिरफ्तार किया गया है। इसके लिए… pic.twitter.com/HXNcr4qy2Y
— POLICE COMMISSIONERATE AGRA (@agrapolice) July 19, 2025
Ali, a resident of Rajasthan who was Piyush Panwar before converting, has told the police about the conversion network.
Lodged in an Agra jail, he broke down during the initial interrogation by the police and said that he wanted to return home, sources said.
He also said he wanted to leave Islam and become a Hindu.
He said he wants to apologise to his parents, who broke ties with him after he converted to Islam.
How Piyush Panwar Became Mohammad Ali
The story of Piyush Panwar becoming Mohammad Ali started in 2021, when he first met Shana, a woman from Rajasthan's Tonk. They then fell in love and decided to get married, sources said.
Shana, however, put a condition, saying that Piyush will have to accept Islam. Piyush agreed and changed his name to Mohammad Ali in the same year.
Shana then rejected him after he was converted.
Ali, whose family had cut ties with him, then decided not to convert again and married a Muslim girl from Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly, according to sources.
How Mohammad Ali Became Part Of Conversion Racket
While trying to convert to Islam, he had come into contact with Mohammad Gaus, a member of the Popular Front of India (PFI), which was banned by the Centre in 2022 for its alleged links with global terrorist organisations.
Through Gaus, he met a cleric, Kaleem Siddiqui, in Delhi, who was convicted in a separate conversion case last year.
Ali then went to West Bengal for religious education. He stayed in the madrasas in Asansol, Bardhaman and Katwapara for three months.
About a year ago, he came in contact with a woman, Ayesha, from Goa on Instagram. Ayesha, who is also among the 10 people arrested by the Uttar Pradesh police, used to record the names of the girls who were converted to Islam.
The police have said that Ali is a close associate of Ayesha.
Ali, who was arrested in Jaipur, has also told the police that the members of the PFI and the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) are also linked with their network.
Besides Ali and Ayesha, the other accused arrested in the case under 'Mission Asmita', an ongoing initiative aimed at dismantling such illegal syndicates, have been identified as Hasan Ali and Osama from Kolkata, Rahman Qureshi from Agra, Abu Talib from Muzaffarnagar (Uttar Pradesh), Abdur Rehman from Dehradun (Uttarakhand), Mohammad Ali and Junaid Qureshi from Rajasthan, and Mustafa from Delhi.
"The modus operandi of the gang involved illegal conversion and radicalisation bears a signature of ISIS," the police had said.
The arrests come days after another man, Chhangur Baba, alias Jamaluddin, the mastermind of a religious conversion gang, was arrested by Uttar Pradesh Police's Anti-Terrorism Squad.