Written by: Shreya (Intern)
Edited by: Anubhav Yadav (Content Head & Developer)
Introduction
Umar Gautam is born in the Rajput family in Fatehpur, U.P. His original name was Shyam Pratap Singh. He was converted to Islam from the Hindu religion. Razia has been married to Umar. At the time of marriage, they both belonged to the Rajput caste. Nowadays, Umar is mainly known for the “conversion racket”. He forcefully converted at least 1,000 people across the country to Islam. He is also known as the founder of the Islamic Dawah Centre (IDC). It was founded in 2010 and the main motto of this organization is to work for the poor and needy who have no support from their family. Umar filed a case against the state of U.P. named Mohammad Umar Gautam v. the State of U.P.
Umar Gautam’s Plea
As we know that he converted to Islam from Hindu by his college friend Nasir who was of the Islamic faith. He was also accused of converting many people to Islam. He was arrested in June by the U.P. Police Anti- Terror Squad (ATS) on the ground of religious conversion by coercion and fraud, way through inducements like job, money, marriage and mental pressure. Also, Lucknow’s Gomti Nagar Police booked a complaint against Umar for cheating, criminal conspiracy, promoting enmity between different groups of people on the ground of religion, race, caste, sex, and insulting religious beliefs and attempt to commit offences under the Indian Penal Code. Then, he filed a plea before Allahabad High Court, in this plea he challenged the leaking of sensitive and controversial information about himself. He also said that TV media published false reports about the whole matter; they did not have the right to highlight the false reports, which causes defamation. He also mentioned that investigating authorities released a press note in which a wrong claim against him is mentioned and after releasing a press note by investigating authorities many of the media houses started highlighting this which is highly sensitive information.
In 2010, it was said by the Ministry of Home Affairs that investigating agencies have a right to disclose only certain confessions which are made by the petitioner and not the whole report. It was also argued by Umar that a press note was issued by the U.P Anti-Terrorist squad in an attempt to prejudice. The petitioners have the right to a free and fair trial and here, it is a violation of article 21. Finally, the division bench Justice Ramesh Sinha and Justice V K Srivastava sat for hearing on his plea but the Allahabad High Court dismissed the plea and said police communication does not violate the fundamental rights of the petitioner. So, article 21 is not violated here. The Allahabad High court also said that investigating agency has not leaked any allegations related to the petitioner to the media also no sensitive information was published by the probe agency. The Bench noted that it was an admitted case of the State that a sanctioned officer relinquished the press note on 20th June. The accused has been apprehended in the case; consequently, his denomination on the press note cannot be considered prejudicial to a fair tribulation.