UP family that took up Islam five years ago re-converts, says VHP helped

The family alleged that they were being harassed by a Muslim man.

Five years after embracing Islam, a family from Saharanpur supposedly re-converted to Hinduism at an Arya Samaj temple, helped by the local VHP and RSS. The family alleged that they were being harassed by a Muslim man.

Dharamveer, a 55-year-old businessman from Kotla in Saharanpur and a Jat by caste, had changed his name to Mohammad Saad after converting in 2012. His family supposedly followed suit — wife Mamta became Mariyam, daughter Shivani was rechristened Jainab, and sons Saurabh and Rahul became Shoaib and Rashid, respectively.

On Sunday, at a local Arya Samaj temple, Dharamveer, his wife and daughter resumed their earlier identities. The sons were away at the time and will re-convert once they were back too, Dharamveer said.

He said he took the help of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the RSS, who “organised a reconversion ritual”.

The VHP’s Saharanpur district president Mangeram said: “A few days ago, Dharamveer approached me and requested to organise a conversion ritual for his family. The VHP, along with RSS workers, arranged for it at the Arya Samaj temple in Sukedi village Sunday.”

Dharamveer also claimed that he had lodged a complaint with the Gagoh police, which was not taken cognizance of. Police, however, denied this. Station house officer, Gangoh, Sanjeev Kumar said, “Dharamveer never approached the police with any complaint of harassment.”

Dharamveer, who runs an automobile spare-parts shop, said: “I had decided to embrace Islam along with my family in 2012 following differences with my father (late) Vijay Pal. We used to offer namaaz since then.”

He said: “Over a year ago, a man named Asif started harassing my 19-year-old daughter whenever she left the house. I complained about it to his parents, but it did not work. I even approached other people in the community, but they also did not help. Irked by their attitude, my wife and daughter stopped offering namaaz six months back.”

“Two month ago, Asif started a rumour that I had borrowed Rs 2.5 lakh from him. That was not true but he began asking me to return the money,” he claimed. “Last week, I decided to re-convert and approached the local VHP and RSS workers. They organised the re-conversion ritual.”