Mohd Iftikharuddin, IAS, Accused of Promoting Conversion at His Official Residence, Fails to Get Clean Chit from SIT

Uttar Pradesh IAS officer Mohd Iftikharuddin has been declined clean chit by the SIT, which was constituted to investigate his communal acts. Iftikharuddin was accused of promoting Islam and conversion. His videos, where he could be seen describing the virtues of Islam and deriding other religions, went viral in September this year.

The videos were reported of 2014-16 when he was commissioner of the Kanpur division. The Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav was chief minister of Uttar Pradesh at the time. After the videos went viral in September, Bhupesh Awasthi, the Mutt Mandir coordination committee convener, complained to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. The Chief Minister ordered an SIT inquiry under CB-CID director-general Gopal Lal Meena and ADG (Kanpur zone) Bhanu Bhaskar.

The SIT was to submit the report in one week, but the deadline was extended. It submitted the 550-page report on Tuesday (October 19). The SIT found many other videos where Iftikharuddin could be seen preaching Islam and conversion.

In September last year, Sudarshan News channel telecasted a news programme titled “Bindas Bol-UPSC Jihad”. It had accused that Muslims were infiltrating the government services with the help of coaching institutes funded by terror money. A section opposed the telecast of the episodes of the programme. The controversy reached the doors of the Supreme Court, where Sudarshan News requested the court to uphold the freedom of the press.

The Union government had allowed the news channel to air the episodes with caution. The IAS officer Mohd Iftikharuddin has served in many senior positions and is currently serving as the chairperson of Uttar Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation.

“As the videos had derogatory comments against Hinduism and the IAS officer was propagating conversion to Islam, I have written to the Chief Minister to probe the case. I have requested him to investigate if the video is authentic, and in case if it is authentic, then strict action should be taken against the IAS officer,” OpIndia quoted the complainant Bhupesh Awasthi.