Who is Chhangur Baba? UP’s alleged mastermind of multi-crore religious conversion racket

From selling gemstones on a bicycle to becoming the alleged mastermind behind a multi-crore illegal religious conversion racket, the rise of Jalaluddin Shah alias 'Chhangur' Baba is now in the spotlight of both the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED). Chhangur Baba, who has been charged with being the 'mastermind' of a religious conversion racket, was arrested by the Uttar Pradesh ATS on Saturday (July 5).

The UP ATS on Wednesday (July 9) got a seven-day custody of Jalaluddin alias Chhangur Baba and his accomplice Neetu alias Nasreen. They are booked for operating in an organised fashion to convert Hindus and non-Muslim community members into Islam.

The rise of Chhangur Baba

Having been a nomadic astrologer in rural Uttar Pradesh, Chhangur Baba's life changed after his stints in Mumbai and Saudi Arabia, where he is said to have built a strong network, as per a report published in the Hindustan Times. In the last ten years, he rebranded himself as 'Peer Baba' or Hazrat Jalaluddin, a Sufi-style preacher who worked from an ashram in the vicinity of the shrine of Chandaulia Baba in Balrampur, near the India-Nepal border.

Senior police officers said Chhangur Baba and his companions allegedly constructed a massive realty empire worth more than ₹300 crore, spread over Balrampur, neighboring UP districts, and Pune in Maharashtra. The accused allegedly owned luxury cars, bungalows, and more than three dozen properties, some of which were registered on the names of his associates or NGOs.

"Chhangur Baba and his friends had visited various Islamic nations more than 50 times in recent years," a high-ranking police officer was quoted saying to Hindustan Times. The high-ranking police officer further said that foreign funding is under suspicion for the ₹106 crore suspicious transactions found in more than a dozen bank accounts related to NGOs floated by the accused.

“Moreover, the kingpin has formed as many as 40 different organisations and opened as many bank accounts in their names. The UP ATS investigation revealed the transactions of over ₹100 crore from these bank accounts in the past few years and they suspect foreign funding behind all these transactions,” a senior police official close to the investigation told Hindustan Times.

On July 5, Chhangur Baba and Nasreen alias Neetu Naveen Rohra were apprehended in a case of suspected forced religious conversions on several charges under the Indian Penal Code and the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021. Nasreen's husband Jamaluddin alias Naveen Rohra and Mehboob, Jalaluddin's son, were apprehended in April in relation to the same case. The ATS continues to pursue on the trail of 14 other co-accused.

The aforementioned NGOs, the ATS claims, were a sham to channel crores, and the ED has now initiated a money laundering investigation under PMLA. One of the major exposes is a ₹16 crore land transaction in Maharashtra's Pune, purportedly by a court clerk from Uttar Pradesh's Utraula and his wife, involving a profit-sharing arrangement.

The nerve center of the illegal empire was a three-bigha plot in Madhpur village within Uttaraula tehsil in UP's Balrampur, with CCTV surveillance and accommodations for more than 50 individuals. The building was demolished for being constructed on government (gram sabha) land.

It was registered in Nasreen's name, who along with her husband was reportedly brainwashed by Baba when he was in Mumbai and subsequently brought to Balrampur and given Islamic identities. The modus operandi, as per police, was to offer money to poor people and threaten them with fictitious cases to coerce conversions. The racket also used "love jihad" techniques, as evidenced by cases like that of Lucknow's Gunja Gupta who was entrapped by an acquaintance Abu Ansari (disguising himself as "Amit"), and subsequently converted and renamed Aleena Ansari.

The ATS revealed that the gang reportedly took ₹15-16 lakh to convert Brahmin, Sardar, or Kshatriya girls, ₹10-12 lakh for OBCs, and ₹8-10 lakh for other castes. Investigation was initiated after intelligence inputs flagged suspicious expenditure and unusual transactions in Madhpur village.