On Thursday, the Vithalwadi police in Ulhasnagar, Maharashtra, arrested 23-year-old Drishti Chaudhary and Salim Chowdhury (58), a trustee of a local mosque. The arrests followed a complaint by Drishti’s mother, Kalpana Chaudhary, who alleged that Chowdhury and nine others had unlawfully converted her daughter to Islam and tried to incite conflict between groups.
Kalpana, a resident of Kurla Camp and a house help, reported that her daughter Drishti, a bright student with aspirations of becoming an engineer, was approached by a neighbor, Afida Shaikh, during the pandemic. Afida, who is also accused in the case, asked Drishti to tutor her children. Kalpana claims that Afida and the other accused then influenced Drishti by having her watch videos of Islamist preacher Zakir Naik.
In her complaint, Kalpana asserted that Drishti’s conversion to Islam was conducted without her consent and that the conversion documents falsely stated that Drishti had accepted Islam “in front of her mother and father.” She further alleged that when she protested, Salim Chowdhury offered her Rs 50,000 to remain silent, and that Drishti and the other accused physically harmed her with a hot rod in an attempt to force her conversion.
