Man’s namaz video lands wife in jail, Shamli couple’s life upended

In the heart of western Uttar Pradesh, which in recent years has turned into a cauldron of deep socio-religious divide, a young Muslim woman, Chandni, was arrested along with her father in Shamli last month under the new stringent law against religious conversion brought in by the BJP government in the state. Chandni and her father, Islam Qureshi, were booked for extortion, criminal intimidation, and unlawful conversion

And like many other similar cases of alleged unlawful religious conversion, hate crimes, cattle smuggling, and hurting of religious sentiments that have dominated the region, it all began with a video clip that was widely circulated on social media in the first week of June.

At the centre of the short clip was Ayush Malik — a 31-year-old son of a local businessman — seen offering Eid prayers at a mosque in Delhi.

“Someone recognised him as Ayush Malik, the only son of prominent businessman Devender Malik from Shamli,” said a police officer.

The Hindu right-wing groups took note and started circulating the video as an example of “manipulated” and “illegal” religious conversion. Soon, Malik made a revelation: he had converted to Islam nearly a decade ago, changed his name, and later married Chandni. The police, however, didn’t give any credence to his public statements and booked Chandni and her father.

A businessman and his son’s namaz video

In the narrow lanes of Shamli, a primarily agrarian town located around 100 km from the National Capital, Bharat Medicos, a four-floor glitzy showroom-like medical shop, and its several small branches spread across the town are difficult to miss. Such is the dominance of Bharat Medicos, and its owner Devender Malik— who is also the chairman of the local medical traders’ association – that large billboards of the shop look down upon the entire market.

Devender Malik, however, doesn’t resemble a typical western UP businessman, adorned with heavy gold chains or wearing a pair of black aviators. He cuts a lean, bony frame with a black mane of hair and a moustache. Clad in a plain checkered shirt, he resembles a government official more than a millionaire pharmaceutical businessman.

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In the days that followed the circulation of the namaz video, Devender said that, like others in the town, he came to know from Ayush that his only son had converted to Islam 10 years ago and had married a 28-year-old physiotherapist, Chandini Qureshi, in 2022.

“I knew that he was seeing this girl called Chandini Qureshi about five years ago. I knew about it. Par lekin baat yahan tak aayegi ye nahi pata tha (But never knew that things have gone this far),” said Devender initially. “Shocked” by the revelations, Devender filed a complaint with the local police on June 6, alleging that his son had been “brainwashed”.

“She (Chandni) must have influenced him. She forced him to convert if he wanted to marry. She and her family had been trying to convince us to give Ayush’s property to him and convert us as well,” Devender alleged. While the father claimed that he had no knowledge of his son’s marriage to Chandni, he admitted that his son started to live separately in 2022.

According to him, he was lost for words when he saw Ayush last February. “He was wearing a kurta and a skull cap and had a beard. He told me his name was now Rahim. We tried to reason with him. We begged him to just become Hindu again, and we would accept everything else. But she (Chandni) tried to convince other members of our family to convert to Islam,” Devender claimed.

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As the video caught more eyeballs and Hindu right-wing groups trolled the young man while expressing sympathy with his father, Ayush came forward and told mediapersons that he had converted out of his own free will.

“There was no pressure (of converting to Islam) on me. I was always interested in Islam as a child. I converted to Islam around 2007, years before I met Chandini,” Ayush told mediapersons.

According to a police officer, Chandini and Ayush came to know each other and started talking in 2021. At that time, Ayush— a tall and well-built young man with a wheatish complexion — had been eased into his father’s business. Ayush had completed a B.Pharma course from a university in Amroha and used to frequent several small pharma shops owned by his family.

According to Ayush, he met Chandini in a hospital where she worked. “I had gone to the hospital for some consultation, and that’s how I got to know her,” Ayush said.

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An employee of Bharat Medicos described Ayush as “the nicest boss to have”. “He is very mild-mannered. Baaki maalik ke tarah gussa nahin karte the jyada (Unlike other owners, he used to not shout at us),” said the staffer.

The nikah and arrests

At Qureshi Mohallah in Shamli, where labyrinthian lanes are lined up with meat shops, dilapidating shanties, as well as imposing bungalows, Chandini’s three-storeyed house stands apart from the rest.

“It’s strange that out of all the reasons, she (Chandni) is accused of doing it for money,” said her relative, on the condition of not being named. “Her family has decent money. Her father operates several fruit vendors in the main market. She was allowed to be a gym trainer. They were way more progressive than most of us,” the relative added.

According to her relatives, Devender Malik first learnt of his son’s relationship with Chandni four years ago. “It was late 2022, and his son was 26. In a place like Shamli, that’s the perfect time to tie the knot and settle down. He (Devender) told us that Ayush likes this Muslim girl and wants to marry her only. We initially resisted (their marriage)… lekin jab soch liya hai tab kya karein (But once they had decided, we did not resist),” the relative said, adding Ayush married Chandini after organising the nikahah somewhere near Delhi

The advent of Yashveer Maharaj

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After Devender filed a police complaint on June 6, alleging forceful conversion of his son and extortion demand from Chandini’s family, the police did not immediately register an FIR.

The same day, Swami Yashveer Maharaj, the head of Yog Sadhna Manch, declared that he would call a mahapanchayat in a week, which would be held near the Qureshi Mohallah, where Chandini’s family lived.

“If she wanted to marry (Ayush), she should have converted to Hinduism. She was after his family property. I ask the BJP government to take strict action against those accused,” Yashveer Maharaj said.

Maharaj, whose ashram is located 14 km from Muzaffarnagar at Baghra village, is also the leader of Chatrapati Shivaji Sena, known for vigilantism. During last year’s Kanwar Yatra, the members of Shivaji Sena allegedly stripped the owners of shops falling on the yatra route to identify their religion.

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Usually clad in an orange dhoti, with a matching saffron shawl draped over his torso, Maharaj is known for taking an interest in cases of Hindu-Muslim couples, and he often “investigates conversion cases” in the area around Muzaffarnagar and Shamli, saying that he doesn’t trust the police to do their job.

Yashveer Maharaj first came to the limelight last December after a 23-year-old Hindu woman eloped with a married Muslim man in Shamli. At a mahapanchayat held on December 25, he allegedly gave an inflammatory speech in the presence of BJP MP Hukum Singh and BJP MLA Suresh Rana — fanning communal tension in the area.

A day after Maharaj announced to hold a mahapanchayat for Ayush, the police swiftly registered an FIR under sections 308 (extortion), 318 (cheating), 336 (forgery), 338 (forgery of valuable security, will, etc), and 351 (criminal intimidation) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, and the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act. The FIR was registered against 10 people. Chandini, her father, and six others, including three clerics, were arrested.

Despite Ayush claiming that he had converted to Islam in 2007-2008 of his own free will, way before he met Chandni, the police went ahead and registered the FIR against her under the anti-conversion law. This law, enacted in 2021, prohibits conversions done solely for the purpose of marriage, or marriages done solely for the purpose of conversion.

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As per the Act, any marriage done for the sole purpose of unlawful conversion or vice versa, either by converting before or after marriage, shall be declared void.

In Ayush’s case, he claimed that he had converted to Islam nearly 10 years before his marriage to Chandni.

A vanishing act and surfacing of puja video

After police arrested Chandini and her father, Ayush “vanished”. The 31-year-old, who frequently spoke to the media after the controversy broke, was nowhere to be seen.

In one of the last conversations he had with the media, Ayush spoke of being “isolated” after his father filed a complaint with the police. “I had converted to Islam a long time ago, not just to marry her (Chandni). Now, everyone who dares to speak with me is being questioned by the police,” he had said.

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Since then, Ayush was not seen in Shamli or in Delhi until another video clip emerged. In the new clip, Ayush is seen fully bald performing puja at a relative’s house. His relatives claimed that the 31-year-old has converted back to Hinduism, and that he is living at his sister’s place, away from the media glare.

“We are convincing him that he has been manipulated to convert to Islam and that he should come back to our fold. He seems more agreeable now,” Devender said. “His sisters explained to him that his decision would break us. That he won’t be able to perform my last rites as a Muslim man. He soon realised his mistake and started performing all Hindu rituals,” Devender told The Indian Express.

Two weeks ago, Yashveer Maharaj had claimed that Ayush would eventually “return to Sanatan”. After the new video clip surfaced, Maharaj said, “He (Ayush) has removed all items related to Islam from his home and has installed a temple in his house. For the past week, he has been doing puja. Now, he will observe 15 days of silence,” he told media persons.

Meanwhile, police said that their probe would continue even if Ayush had converted back to Hinduism. “We are now trying to find the role of Pakistan-linked clerics in this case. From where did Ayush learn the basics of Urdu and Islam? There are still some arrests to be made,” a senior police officer said.

While Chandini and her father remain in jail — their bail pleas rejected by the court — Devender has an offer for Chandini to reunite with his son, Ayush. “We will only agree to their marriage if she converts to Hinduism, or else not,” he said.