Lucknow, Sep 23 (PTI) The Uttar Pradesh ATS on Thursday got a 10-day remand of Islamic scholar Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui, who was arrested for running a "conversion syndicate".

The Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) had arrested Siddiqui on Tuesday for illegal conversion of people to Islam.

Also Read | Tamil Nadu Shocker: 20-Year-Old Woman Student of Madras Christian College Stabbed to Death Outside Tambaram Railway Station in Chennai.

Siddiqui was produced in a court on Wednesday and the ATS had sought a 10-day custody to probe the case, ADG (Law and Order) Prashant Kumar said.

The Special Additional District and Session Court (NIA/ATS) awarded the custody after going through evidence presented by the prosecution, the officer said.

Also Read | West Bengal Assembly By-Elections 2021: 'Mamata Banerjee Will Be Defeated Again in Bhabanipur By-Poll', Says Hardeep Singh Puri.

The remand period will start at 10 am from September 24.

Maulana Siddiqui will be interrogated to get more information from him about his links, he said.

Siddiqui, a well-known Islamic scholar from Meerut, was arrested three months after Delhi's Jamia Nagar residents Mufti Qazi Jahangir Alam Qasmi and Mohammad Umar Gautam were apprehended by the ATS.

Qasmi and Gautam were running Islamic Dawah Centre, an outfit allegedly working on the ISI funding for converting deaf-mute students to Islam, according to officials.

The ATS has so far arrested 10 people in connection with the conversion racket, Kumar said.

Those arrested were booked under relevant sections of the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2020 and the Indian Penal Code, as per officials.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)