Fitness centres or conversion traps? UP police expose ‘gym jihad’ modus operandi

Key points

• UP police book 10 gym owners under Gangsters Act for conversion, exploitation (File Photo) VARANASI: Police have invoked the stringent Gangsters Act against 10 gym owners in Uttar Pradesh's Mirzapur on charges of running a racket in which women were allegedly forced to convert to Islam and sexually exploited as part of an operation dubbed "gym jihad".Gangsters Act is slapped after a process that involves approval from top district authorities.
• It allows punitive steps such as attachment of properties.
• The 10 suspects are now in jail after being arrested in Jan-Feb this year on a series of charges tied to conversion and abuse of women.The gyms had been sealed after FIRs based on complaints from some of the women who were targeted, police said.
• Investigators suspect that more than 50 women may have been snared in the alleged operation.Mirzapur ASP (City) Nitesh Singh said chargesheets had been filed against the...