Uttar Pradesh: After Balrampur and Agra, now illegal conversions in Aligarh, 97 missing women suspected to have become victims of this racket
Following Agra and Balrampur, a major illegal conversion racket has now been busted in Aligarh district of Uttar Pradesh. The gang is reportedly suspected of luring as many as 97 women, who are now missing, according to intelligence sources and police.
With the case being very sensitive in nature, several intelligence and special police teams have already been sent to probe the issue in great depth.
The case took a serious turn after Umar Gautam was arrested in Agra. Gautam, while being interrogated, revealed information about the Islamic conversion network as his ‘list’ of women had names from Aligarh as well. There are as many as 97 cases of missing women registered in the district and now Police is investigating each case with a new angle to find out if they have been converted.
In March 2025, two sisters (33 and 18 years old) had gone missing from Aligarh’s Sadar police station. The police sprung into action when one of the sisters’ photographs appeared on social media where she was holding an AK-47 rifle. This revelation led to connection with a well-entrenched illegal conversion network. The sources add that the sisters were forcibly converted and were then kept in a Muslim-dominated area of Kolkata.
How the gang operated
Police investigations show that the gang used social networks, dark websites, and dating applications to lure Hindu women. The members would initially befriend the women, trap them in love, and then brainwash them into converting. The police operation was so secret that even various police teams that were investigating it weren’t aware of each other’s actions. The group is suspected to have connections with banned terror groups such as PFI, SIMI, and Lashkar-e-Taiba. Foreign funding from nations such as Canada, the US, the UK, and Dubai is also reported.
Uttar Pradesh DGP Rajeev Krishna explained that the gang was able to convert hundreds of Hindu women in different states. The arrested individuals in the Agra conversion case are Ayesha (actual name S.B. Krishna from Odisha), Ali Hasan alias Shekhar Rai from Kolkata, and Mohammad Ali from Jaipur. Ayesha reportedly operated the foreign funding and finances of the group, whereas Hasan looked after making influential contacts.
97 women missing in Aligarh
The most startling revelation was that at least 97 women from Aligarh and other surrounding areas have gone missing, most of whom are believed to be victims of this racket of conversion. In a few cases, the women were either misled or forced to convert, and a few of them were even coerced into marriages.
“Mission Asmita” by UP govt
In response, the Yogi Adityanath administration has initiated a special drive named “Mission Asmita” against forced conversions. As part of this, seven special teams of Agra police conducted raids in Kolkata, Jammu & Kashmir, Goa, Rajasthan, Delhi, and Uttarakhand, arresting 10 accused, including a woman. The case has been registered under several sections of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita and the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Act, 2021.
DGP Rajeev Krishna compared the gang’s operation model to that of ISIS, saying they used hawala, the dark web, and radical networks to promote religious extremism and demographic change. The investigation in the case is ongoing.
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