In the small towns and far-off villages of Bharat, something dangerous has been growing quietly, networks that target Hindu women, children, and poor families, trying to convert them using lies, emotional traps, and fake promises. These operations are not random. They are well-planned, cleverly funded from abroad, and run like a full-fledged racket.
Recently, one such man, Chhangur Baba, was arrested. At first, he looked like a spiritual man, but investigations revealed that he was running a large conversion racket. His arrest has opened the door to a much bigger story, one that has been going on for years in different parts of the country.
But Chhangur Baba is not the first. Many such people have been caught before, and Organiser has reported on these cases regularly. In Bhopal, we saw how Hindu college girls were trapped in the name of love. One after the other, they were emotionally blackmailed and forced to change their religion. The same happened in Mandsaur, Bijainagar, and Morena.
These are not just separate incidents; they are all part of the same dangerous plan.
The methods are shockingly similar to the Ajmer 1992 scandal, where hundreds of Hindu girls were tricked, blackmailed, and abused by a group of men in the name of love and religion. That incident still haunts the country, and yet, the same pattern continues today, in new forms and new places.
These cases show the same pattern: a dangerous mix of emotional blackmail, fake love, greed, and religious brainwashing. These people are not just converting others; they are trying to change the social and cultural identity of India from within.
It is no longer just about one religion or one victim. It is about our national security, our women’s safety, and the future of Bharat’s culture and values. So the big question is: how many more “Peers,” “Maulanas,” and “Trusts” are out there, hiding in plain sight, waiting to trap more victims?
Let us now take a look at some of the major cases, one by one, so we understand the full picture of this dangerous trend:
Case 1: Chhangur Baba’s conversion network in Uttar Pradesh
Funding and Scale: Approximately 15 years ago, Karimulla Shah, a vendor of rings and amulets in Balrampur, Uttar Pradesh, reinvented himself as Chhangur Baba, a self-styled Haji Pir. He constructed multiple dargahs, hosting large-scale events that attracted thousands, including senior police officials. His network operated across 579 Hindu-majority districts, identified through a nationwide survey, spanning Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and Nepal’s border regions. Over 3,000 agents were trained to facilitate conversions, with a specific focus on Hindu girls. Funds from Pakistan, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey, funnelled through Nepal, were deposited into approximately 40 bank accounts. His associate, Neetu alias Nasreen, managed operations in Nepal’s border districts and accompanied Chhangur on international trips.
Modus Operandi: Chhangur Baba’s operation used a systematic approach, employing 1,000 Muslim youths to target Hindu girls in a “love trap” scheme, offering financial incentives for conversions and marriages. Codewords such as “project” for targeted girls, “kajal karna” for brainwashing, and “deedar karna” for introducing victims to Chhangur were used to maintain secrecy.
Case Status: On July 5, 2025, the UP ATS arrested Chhangur Baba, his son Mehoob, Neetu, and Naveen, among others. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on July 9, 2025, in Lucknow, targeting the financial network. The investigation continues, with authorities probing the syndicate’s international connections and funding exceeding Rs 100 crore.
Case 2: Umar Gautam’s Islamic Dawah Centre (IDC)
Funding and Scale: Mohammad Umar Gautam, born Shyam Prasad Singh Gautam in a Rajput family in Fatehpur, converted to Islam in 1986 after influence from a Muslim friend, Nasir Khan. He established the Islamic Dawah Centre (IDC) and other organisations, including Fatima Charitable Trust and Al Hasan Educational & Welfare Foundation, which facilitated over 1,000 illegal conversions. His network targeted vulnerable groups, particularly hearing and speech-impaired children, across Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and other states. Foreign funding, including Rs 57 crore from Britain’s Al Falah Trust and contributions from Pakistan’s ISI, supported the operation. Gautam’s efforts were recognised by the Jeddah chapter of Aligarh Muslim University in 2018 for “spreading Islam.”
Modus Operandi: Gautam’s syndicate used inducements like marriage, jobs, and money, coupled with psychological manipulation, to convert individuals. He specifically targeted differently-abled children, brainwashing them to harbour hatred against non-Muslims and grooming them as potential suicide bombers.
Case Status: On June 2021, the UP ATS arrested Gautam and his associate Mufti Qazi Jahangir. On September 11, 2024, a special court in Lucknow sentenced Gautam and 11 others to life imprisonment under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act.
Case 3: Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui’s conversion syndicate
Funding and Scale: Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui, an Islamic scholar from western Uttar Pradesh, operated the Jamia Imam Waliullah Trust, which funded madrasas and facilitated illegal conversions. His network, uncovered in June 2021, was described as India’s largest conversion syndicate, active across multiple states and supported by Rs 150 crore in foreign funds from Bahrain, Britain, Turkey, and other Gulf countries. Siddiqui’s trust received donations through hawala channels, including Rs 1.5 crore from Bahrain and Rs 3 crore from Gulf countries.
Modus Operandi: The syndicate targeted upper-caste Hindu girls, particularly Brahmins and Kshatriyas, using inducements and mental pressure in the name of Jannat, Jahannum and Dozakh Ki Aag.
Case Status: Siddiqui was arrested by the UP ATS on September 21, 2021, in Meerut. The investigation revealed connections to Umar Gautam’s IDC, with three additional arrests on September 26, 2021. The ATS filed a charge sheet against 10 accused, including Siddiqui, for demographic manipulation and communal disruption.
Case 4: Salahuddin Zainuddin Sheikh’s terror funding links
Funding and Scale: Salahuddin Zainuddin Sheikh, a Vadodara native and head of the American Federation of Muslims of Indian Origin, was linked to Umar Gautam’s conversion racket., Sheikh’s operation focused on funding conversions and religious infrastructure, with suspected ties to terror activities in Jammu and Kashmir. He received Rs 60 crore via hawala and Rs 19 crore through foreign donations, which were used to support conversions and mosque construction across India.
Modus Operandi: Manipulate vulnerable individuals into converting.
Case Status: Arrested by the UP ATS in 2021, Sheikh is under investigation for terror funding and conversion activities. The Vadodara police are probing his Jammu and Kashmir connections, with no final conviction reported as of July 2025.
Case 5: Varyava Abdul Vahab Mahmood in Gujarat
Funding and Scale: In Bharuch, Gujarat, Islamic preacher Varyava Abdul Vahab Mahmood and five associates converted 37 Hindu families and 100 individuals to Islam over 15 years.
Modus Operandi: The group, including Shabbirbhai and Samadbhai Bakerywala, offered monetary support to convert individuals, forcibly changing names on official documents like Aadhar cards. They converted a government-funded house into an Islamic place of worship, operating under the guise of social welfare.
Case Status: An FIR was filed on November 15, 2021, at Aamod Police Station under IPC sections and the Gujarat Freedom of Religion Act, 2003. The case is ongoing.
Case 6: Maulana Hafiz Firoze Alam in Fatehpur
Funding and Scale: Maulana Hafiz Firoze Alam, a cleric at a Fatehpur mosque, ran a conversion racket for over a decade, targeting non-Muslim girls for conversion and sexual exploitation. His origins are unclear, with suspicions of him being a Bangladeshi or Rohingya illegal immigrant.
Modus Operandi: Firoze encouraged Muslim youths to lure non-Muslim girls with promises of money and pleasure, solemnising nikahs post-conversion.
Case Status: Firoze was arrested on September 24, 2021, for possessing fake identity documents under IPC sections and the Passport Act.
Case 7: Bhopal College Conversion Racket
Funding: This was one of the first major exposures of a conversion racket operating from Madhya Pradesh. Though precise financial flows are still under probe, evidence suggests that the group was part of a wider, pan-India Islamic syndicate network receiving indirect foreign logistical support.
Modus Operandi: Led by a man named Farhan, the syndicate targeted Hindu college-going women in Bhopal through romantic entrapment. Victims were lured into relationships, raped, and secretly recorded in compromising situations. These videos were then used to blackmail the women into religious conversion. The group employed the same tactics across multiple victims and reportedly used social media and messaging apps to identify and contact new targets.
Scale: While the exact number of victims remains under investigation, multiple Hindu female students filed FIRs at Baghsewania police station on April 11, 2025. As the probe expanded, more survivors stepped forward, revealing similar experiences.
Case Status: Twelve people, including Farhan, Sahil Khan, Ali Khan, Saad, Nabeel, and Abra,r were arrested. A Special Investigation Team (SIT) was constituted to pursue deeper leads and trace links with national and international Islamic radical outfits.
Case 8: Grooming Jihad in the name of Shooting academy in Indore
Funding and Scale: So far, no confirmed external or foreign funding has been found in this case. However, the scale is alarming, obscene videos found on the accused’s phone have led investigators to 25-30 potential victims, most of whom are young Hindu women, including Scheduled Tribes and Jain community members. This seems to be part of a larger grooming network similar to past cases in Bhopal, Mandsaur, and Morena, raising concerns of a coordinated pattern.
Modus Operandi: Mohsin Khan, a shooting coach at Dream Olympic Shooting Academy in Indore, misused his position to target Hindu girls. He gained their trust as a mentor and then: Sexually exploited under the pretext of relationships or coaching, Recorded obscene videos to blackmail victims, Banned Hindu customs like applying Tilak, wearing Kalawa, or chanting “Jai Shri Ram”, Forced Islamic practices like eating beef, reciting Kalma, and conversion.
Case Status: Seven FIRs have been registered at Annapurna Police Station, Indore, since May 2025. A 6-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) is probing the matter.
Case 9: Mission Asmita – ISIS-Style Network (Agra & Beyond)
Funding: Under the Mission Asmita crackdown initiated by CM Yogi Adityanath, a massive radical Islamic conversion syndicate was exposed across six states: Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, and West Bengal. Funding was channelled via the dark web from foreign nations, with suspected links to PFI and SIMI.
Modus Operandi: The group targeted vulnerable Hindu women, especially adults, using deception and emotional coercion. Victims were termed “reverts,” and conversion was called “safe zone entry.” Abdul Rehman, the mastermind, was originally Mahendra Pal, a Hindu who became a Christian in 1990 and later a Muslim. Converted individuals received new Aadhaar and Voter IDs in Kolkata.
Scale: Initial leads emerged from the disappearance of two sisters from Agra who were eventually traced to a Muslim colony in Kolkata. The gang’s reach included additional confirmed and suspected cases across multiple states.
Case Status: Ten individuals, all originally Hindu before converting, were arrested on July 19. The ATS continues to investigate the network’s radical links and financial channels.
Case 10: Prayagraj Dalit Minor Conversion Case
Funding and Scale: This was a focused case targeting Dalit minors. While direct financial trails are still under investigation, it is suspected that the network had ideological and operational backing from broader jihadi syndicates.
Modus Operandi: Darkasha Bano brainwashed a 15-year-old Dalit girl using emotional manipulation and anti-Hindu propaganda. Along with Mohammad Kaif, she lured the girl to Kerala under the pretext of offering support. There, the girl was forced to convert and groomed for jihad. She escaped and alerted local authorities.
Case Status: Darkasha Bano, Mohammad Kaif, and Mohammad Taj were arrested on July 14, 2025. Multiple police teams are conducting inter-state investigations into the network’s true reach.
Case 11: Aligarh disappearances linked to Umar Gautam
Funding and Scale: This network, tied to the infamous Umar Gautam, reportedly received funding from ISI-linked sources and radical groups like PFI and SIMI. These funds enabled high-tech targeting using social media and encrypted platforms. 97 Hindu women, including 17 minors, went missing after contact with the gang. In 2018 alone, 33 women were converted, three of whom were traced back to Aligarh.
Modus Operandi: The gang employed dating apps, social media, and dark web forums to connect with Hindu women. After conversion, the victims were moved, hidden, or trafficked. Some were radicalised and possibly linked to further terror activities.
Case Status: The gang’s operations came to light after Umar Gautam’s arrest. Investigations remain open under ATS and central agencies.
Case 12: Kushinagar Conversion and prostitution ring
Funding and Scale: This racket functioned with minimal yet targeted funding. The model appeared less about mass conversions and more about grooming for trafficking. However, deeper links to jihadi groups are suspected. Confirmed conversion and trafficking of at least three minors, with the possibility of more victims under review.
Modus Operandi: The gang, led by Jairunnisa and her accomplices, lured three minor Hindu girls with false promises of marriage. They were forcibly converted and trafficked to Mumbai for prostitution. The girls were brainwashed, isolated, and exploited.
Case Status: Following complaints by Prem Madheshiya and Ramcharit Prasad, Jairunnisa, Arman Ali, Arbaad, and Ikramul were arrested. A formal investigation into child trafficking and conversion is ongoing.
Case 13: Mandsaur grooming by an Islamist posing as a Tantrik
Funding and Scale: There is no confirmed foreign funding in this case, but the scale is deeply disturbing. Based on local reports and activist accounts, 40–50 Hindu women—mostly from economically weaker Scheduled Castes in Baloda and nearby villages- may have been sexually exploited by Mubarak Mansuri, who posed as a Hindu tantrik for over 10 years. He used his fake identity to operate quietly and gain the trust of rural families.
Modus Operandi: Mansuri, aged 34, created a forged Aadhar card with a Hindu identity to disguise his religion and present himself as a spiritual healer. He targeted vulnerable Hindu women, especially those with sick family members, and lured them with promises of “occult cures.”
He sedated women using unlabelled medicines and aphrodisiacs, and Sexually assaulted them while unconscious.
Filmed the acts to later blackmail them, and took them to hotels using a fake Aadhar card with another man’s name and ID photo. Victims came from families of daily-wage workers, often alone during the day. Some women have since gone missing. His house, which became the centre of his abusive network, was stockpiled with black magic books, pornography, and drugs.
Case Status: Arrested on May 22, 2025, after the victim’s family filed FIR No. 219/2025 at Garoth Police Station. Charged under Sections 337 and 340(2) of the BNS, with additional charges likely pending further investigation.
Case 14: Morena Grooming Jihad running from a coaching
Funding and Scale: Madhya Pradesh has emerged as a disturbing hotspot for systematic grooming and “Love Jihad” cases. The recent case in Morena bears chilling similarities to the infamous Ajmer 1992 blackmail scandal. Operating under the guise of a computer teacher named “Abhi,” the accused, Aslam Khan (originally from Gormi, Bhind), targeted Hindu girls through the Insaniyat Digital India Computer Institute. Claiming to be a Shiv bhakt, he installed posters of Bhagwan Shiv and spiritual quotes to build trust with students and their families. He also possessed two Aadhaar cards, one with his real name and the other with his Hindu alias.
Modus Operandi: Khan lured unsuspecting girls, mostly from middle-class Hindu backgrounds (including Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Jatav, and Kayastha communities), into a false sense of spiritual safety. Once under his control, he would take them to the institute’s library—outfitted with hidden cameras—and sexually exploit them. These encounters were recorded without the girls’ knowledge. When victims resisted, he threatened to leak the videos, coercing silence. He also tried to influence their religious beliefs, encouraging them to question Sanatan Dharma and pushing conversion to Islam. A Muslim girl, Asiya, reportedly helped Aslam by approaching and befriending Hindu students.
Scale: Over 20+ victims are suspected, though only one has come forward. The case came to light after one victim’s father was alerted by a business partner of the institute. Videos recovered from the accused were allegedly shared with contacts in Meerut and Ghaziabad, suggesting a wider grooming network beyond Morena and Bhind.
Case Status: FIR No. 263/2025 was registered under Sections 74, 75, and 77 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. Aslam Khan has been arrested and is currently under investigation. Authorities are probing his links to the Insaniyat Foundation, which is suspected of operating under a secular cover while promoting targeted grooming. Police continue to identify other victims and collaborators in what appears to be a premeditated conversion syndicate using emotional coercion, deceit, and blackmail.
Case 15: Handbook of Grooming Gangs in Bharat – The Ajmer 92 case
The Ajmer 1992 scandal was a notorious case of large-scale sexual exploitation and trafficking of Hindu girls and women by a network of Muslim men linked with the Khadims of Ajmer Sharif Dargah, coming to light in the early 1990s. Over 200 Hindu girls, many from Scheduled Castes and marginalised communities, were deceived and coerced into forced relationships under false promises of marriage, jobs, political positions and religious conversion. The scandal involved key local figures, including Khadims, religious clerics, who allegedly protected and facilitated the racket. Victims were blackmailed with obscene photographs and videos to ensure their silence.
Despite complaints, initial police action was slow, raising questions about institutional bias and communal interference. The case sparked outrage across Rajasthan and beyond, becoming a symbol of how organised groups exploited communal tensions to trap vulnerable women. The Ajmer scandal remains one of the most infamous instances of “Love Jihad”-style exploitation in India, with its revelations pushing calls for stricter laws and better victim protection.
Grooming Jihad: The invisible war on women
While state agencies crack down on organised conversion syndicates, a darker, more personal form of religious subversion festers quietly in the heart of India, the insidious rise of Grooming Jihad. From the narrow lanes of Bijainagar to the bustling urban centres of Bhopal, Mandsaur, Indore, and beyond, disturbing patterns have resurfaced, echoing the horrors of the infamous 1992 Ajmer scandal, where hundreds of Hindu girls were preyed upon, blackmailed, and brutalised by a powerful clique hiding behind the facade of faith.
In case after case, Hindu girls and young women, some barely out of school, are lured through fake love, promises of marriage, emotional manipulation, and monetary temptation. Once trapped, many are forced to abandon their faith, families, and future. Others are blackmailed using intimate photos or videos, coerced into silence and submission.
But what perhaps shakes the conscience the most is a chilling “rate card” uncovered during investigations, a ghastly commodification of victims based on caste. A Brahmin girl, investigators revealed, could fetch as much as Rs 20 lakh, while an SC/ST girl was “priced” at Rs 10 lakh. This brutal market logic reveals not only deep-rooted misogyny but also a clear agenda of demographic engineering, one that specifically targets the Hindu social fabric, from its most revered to its most vulnerable strata.
In hidden rooms, through encrypted WhatsApp chats and mosque whisper networks, recruiters dangle twisted promises of “Hoors in Jannat”, as bait for vulnerable youth who are radicalised and weaponised. These are not isolated incidents; they are cogs in a much larger wheel of ideological warfare being waged on Indian soil.
Every element of the operation is methodically planned: the grooming, the conversion, the financial rewards, the relocation, even the fake identities used to infiltrate Hindu spaces. Victims, often cut off from families and brainwashed through religious reinterpretations, are left with shattered identities and no road home.
Investigations across states have begun to unearth the web of foreign funding, money flowing in from Gulf nations, Turkey, and radical organisations abroad. Arrested operatives often reveal deep linkages with foreign-trained preachers, sleeper cells, and “religious trusts” that act as a front for this war of attrition against India’s demographic integrity.
Yet, the machinery remains far from dismantled. With each arrest, the question grows louder and more urgent:
How many more such “Peers,” “Maulanas,” and “Trusts” are still hiding in plain sight, behind madrasa walls, NGO signboards, or social media handles, awaiting the next victim, plotting the next conversion, preparing the next rupture in the nation’s soul?
This is no longer a matter of personal faith or choice; it is a national crisis, an existential challenge. The victims are not just individuals, they are daughters, sisters, students, citizens, symbols of a civilisation under siege.
If ignored, it is not just the girls who are lost, it is the very spirit of Bharat, slowly bleeding in silence.
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