Uttar Pradesh Police on Saturday (July 19, 2025) said it arrested 10 individuals from six States involved in a large-scale illegal religious conversion racket. The arrests were made from Rajasthan, West Bengal, Uttarakhand, Delhi and Goa apart from U.P.
“The probe began in Agra in March after two sisters aged 18 and 33 were reported missing. Investigations revealed that they were allegedly coerced into religious conversion and were undergoing radicalization. One of the sisters had also put a picture of a girl holding an AK 47 rifle as her profile picture on a social media platform. Preliminary investigations found that the sisters were targeted by a gang involved in ‘love jihad’ and radicalization,” said Agra Commissioner of Police Deepak Kumar. He added evidence of the racket receiving funding originating from America and Canada is also noticed during investigation,”.
“The arrested individuals activities included receiving illicit funds, providing safe houses for covert operations, offering legal advice, and providing other forms of assistance to facilitate the conversions and radicalization,” added the police.
In light of multi State and transnational imprints of the racket dedicated units of the State police, including the Special Task Force (STF) and the Anti-Terror Squad (ATS), are deployed to assist with the ongoing investigation.
“This action is part of ‘Mission Asmita’, an ongoing initiative aimed at dismantling such illicit syndicates,” added the U.P. police. Mission Asmita, is a dedicate initiative of U.P. police to take on criminals involved in serious offenses such as illegal conversions, radicalization, love jihad and deliberate attempts to undermine national security with the help of transnational network.
Published – July 19, 2025 11:58 pm IST
