New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday adjourned hearing on the Uttar Pradesh government’s plea seeking cancellation of bail granted to cleric Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui, who is charged by the state anti-terrorist squad (ATS) for allegedly running a mass religious conversion racket.
A bench comprising Justices Aniruddha Bose, Sanjay Kumar and S.V.N. Bhatti acceded to the request made by Uttar Pradesh government through a letter seeking adjournment.
In the last hearing, the top court had asked Additional Advocate General Garima Prashad to file a tabular statement clearly specifying the role attributed to Siddiqui in alleged mass religious conversion case by September 5.
Last week, the Supreme Court granted one time relaxation to cleric Siddiqui to visit his ancestral village in Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar to perform last rites in his brother’s funeral. It had ordered that the cleric will not take part in any political or social event except connected with brother’s funeral and will not make any public speeches.
On April 5, a division bench of Justices Attaur Rahman Masoodi and Saroj Yadav of the High Court directed Siddiqui’s release on bail, who was arrested from Meerut on charges of converting over 100 people.
The High Court granted him bail on the grounds of parity as one of the co-accused was granted bail by the Supreme Court.
The state ATS had claimed that he ran the biggest conversion syndicate across the country and donations through ‘hawala’ in a trust operated by him, were also stated to have been recovered.
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