Shahnawaz Khan, the prime accused in an alleged online gaming and religious conversion racket, was traced to Worli in Mumbai before he was arrested in Alibaug by the Mumbra Police on Sunday night.
The Ghaziabad Police had sought assistance of Mumbra Police after Khan’s involvement in online gaming and religious conversion case, therefore, a joint operation was conducted to nab him but he escaped along with his mother and brother.
According to sources, Thane Police had sought help of Mumbai Police, but by then Shahnawaz Khan had changed his location and eloped to Alibaug.
Mumbra Police conducted raids in several lodges in Alibaug overnight after receiving a tip-off that Khan was hiding there since Saturday morning. Khan was later taken into the custody with the help of the Alibaug Police.
Khan told the police that he initially came in touch with the victim (a boy) on Fortnite, an online gaming application, in early 2021. Later, they exchanged their mobile numbers and started communicating on Discord feature within the game, and, eventually, became friends.
After a few days, the victim stopped playing the game on Fortnite, and joined Valorent. Both of them then got connected on the gaming platform in December-end 2021.
While playing the game, they reached the target location, Ice Box, which is where the two of them had a conversation on religious conversion for the first time and discussed televangelist Zakir Naik’s speech.
A mobile phone, an iPad and a computer were seized from Khan’s residence, which he used to access the gaming app. His WhatsApp and Instagram accounts are being scrutinised.
An FIR against Khan was filed under the jurisdiction of Kavi Nagar police station in Ghaziabad on May 30.
The victim’s family gave the digital identity of the suspect as Baddo. When the cyber team tracked his location, the real identity of the accused was Shahnawaz Maqsood Khan, aged 23, from Thane.
The second accused was identified as a Maulvi from Ghaziabad. They had converted one Jain and two Hindu boys.
The accused were using Fortnite app to bring the targets on one platform, and used a Hindu identity to interact with them.
They used to convince the victims that if they recite Quran they will win the game. Through this, they earned their faith and then gradually move them towards Discord chat engine.
Once the boys came to the chat engine, they were shown the videos of Zakir Naik. After accepting Islam, the victims were introduced to the videos of Tariq Jameel, a Pakistani Islamic television preacher and a member of Tablighi Jamaat, for turning them into believers.
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