Mumbai: Police arrested a man identified as Shahnawaz alias Baddo from Maharashtra. He is accused of luring youngsters through a games app and then forcing them to convert to Islam. Thane Police arrested Baddo alias Shahnawaz Maksood Khan. He was wanted as the main accused in the Ghaziabad conversion case in which non-Muslim youths were being converted to Islam through online games. So far, 3 Hindu boys and 1 Jain boy have been identified as victims, brainwashed through a game called Fortnite. Thane police have also arrested Baddo’s brother in this case.
On the insistence of Shahnawaz, more than 400 people converted to Islam in Mumbra, Maharashtra. Thane Police arrested him from Raigarh’s Alibag, where he was staying in a lodge. He is said to be aged around 23 years.
A case of converting non-Muslim youths to Islam surfaced in Ghaziabad on 30th May 2023 when a victim youth’s filed a complaint at Kavinagar Police Station in which he said his minor son was lured into practising Islam by Islamists online. A team was formed to investigate the matter after filing an FIR under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
During the investigation, police found that the real identity of the online handle Baddo with whom the victim was talking regularly, was Shahnawaz Maksood Khan s/o Maksood Khan of Shazia Apartment, Devipada Mumbra under Mumbra Police Station area, Thane, Maharashtra. A special team of UP Police was sent to Thane, Maharashtra to arrest the accused. Shahnawaz Maksood Khan was the mastermind behind the nexus. He was absconding since the case came to light.
DCP Nagar Zone Nipun Agarwal said so far four boys (one Jain and three Hindus) have been identified as victims. Two of them (one Jain and one Hindu) are from Ghaziabad, one (Hindu) from Faridabad and one (Hindu) from Chandigarh. On 11th June 2023, Shahnawaz Khan was arrested in Alibag City of Maharashtra by a team of the Thane police.
According to police officers Shahnawaz was continuously changing his mobile SIM and location and that is the reason why the police were having difficulty tracing him. He will be handed over to the UP police after completing the transfer formalities. The UP Police had registered a case against the man on May 30. The police had already arrested a maulvi named Abdul Rehman in the case.