Lucknow, Nov. 5 -- The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court has granted bail to eight of the 16 convicts in Uttar Pradesh's first major unlawful religious conversion case registered in 2021, while rejecting bail for eight others, including the alleged masterminds Mohd Umar Gautam and Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui.

The case had led to the first major prosecution under the UP Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021. The UP ATS had busted the conversion racket after the arrest of Maulana Umar Gautam, chairman of Islamic Da'wah Centre operated from Delhi's Batla House locality, along with Mufti Kazi Jahangir Kasmi, an employee of the centre, on June 20, 2021. Gautam faces charges of converting around 1000 people to Islam.

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