Prayagraj: The Pratapgarh police on Wednesday announced a Rs 25,000 reward each on three persons accused of holding a Madhya Pradesh man captive for 10 years and forcing him to convert his religion. After several failed attempts, the man finally escaped on Sunday, ending a decade of ‘slavery’. Santosh Shukla, 40, claimed he was held captive as a house help by a Pratapgarh resident, Badr-ul-Zama, 38, who also got him converted to Islam and renamed him Sher Khan. Zama was arrested on Monday, but his three associates are on the run.The trio, Kalloo, Naeem and Nizam, have been booked under various sections of BNS and Section 3/5(1) of UP Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021. Police said Nizam is a maulana at Dwoodnagar mosque in Pratapgarh.On Sunday, Shukla managed to flee and reach a police outpost where he told his ordeal to cops.Shukla, originally from MP’s Sagar district, had met Badr-ul-Zama, Kalloo, Naeem, Nizam and their six associates at a dhaba in Chhattisgarh in 2014. The group promised him a better life if he relocated to Pratapgarh. They even promised to arrange a matrimonial alliance for him.Shukla waited for two more years before he accepted the offer and reached Pratapgarh in 2016. But his dream destination turned into a nightmare as Badr-ul-Zama took him captive and made him do the household work — for the next 10 years.
