Summary:
Kanpur, Sep 29 (PTI) An SIT set up by the Uttar Pradesh government on Wednesday launched its probe into the video clips purportedly showing a senior IAS officer advocating religious conversion in a meeting with Muslim clerics at his former official residence here.
As SIT chief and CB-CID Director-General G L Meena visited the city for the probe and held a meeting with his team members, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi cried foul.
The video clips, which surfaced on Tuesday, feature former Kanpur"s Divisional Commissioner Mohammed Iftikharuddin discussing religious conversions with Muslim clerics at his office-cum residence here during his tenure in the city.
With the issue cropping up months ahead of the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, it instantly assumed a political overtone.
In a tweet, AIMIM chief Owaisi alleged that the state government has taken up for probe a six-year-old video when it was not even in power.
He accused the UP government of taking up the probe "out of context" and termed it a "blatant targeted harassment based on religion".