Wasim Rizvi, the former chief of the UP Shia Waqf Board, has converted to Hinduism and want to be cremated after death

Wasim Rizvi, the divisive former Chairman of the Uttar Pradesh Shia Central Waqf Board, has publicly converted to Hinduism. Rizvi was reportedly formally converted to Hinduism on Monday by Mahant Narasimha Ananda Sarawati of the Dasna temple.

Rizvi had instructed in his will that his body should be burned rather than buried after his death, as per Hindu practise. Rizvi further stated that the Hindu seer Narasimha Ananda Sarawati of the Dasna temple in Ghaziabad should light his cremation pyre.

After filing a plea in the Supreme Court to have 26 verses from the Quran removed because he said they supported terrorism and Jihad, the former Shia Waqf Board chief courted controversy.

Rizvi had previously recorded a video in which he expressed his fear for his life, claiming that various extremist Islamic groups had called for his beheading. Rizvi argued in his appeal that the offensive words were introduced to the holy Quran considerably later.

"These verses were added to the Quran, by the first three Caliphs, to aid the expansion of Islam by war," Rizvi had mentioned in his petition.

Radical Islamists and terror organisations, he claims, use these Quran verses to justify jihad. Rizvi went on to say that these passages were being exploited to deceive illiterate Muslim youths into joining jihad.

The top court, on the other hand, dismissed the petition as frivolous and fined him Rs 50,000. Wasim Rizvi authored a new Islamic Holy book, removing the said 26 passages from the Quran, after failing to get the terror-supporting sections officially removed from the Quran.

On November 17, Asaduddin Owaisi, the chief of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), filed a complaint against Waseem Rizvi for allegedly making disrespectful words about the Prophet.

Rizvi allegedly wrote a Hindi book in which he attacked Prophet Mohammad and used offensive language, according to Owaisi's complaint to the Hyderabad Commissioner of Police.

Owaisi had expressed his displeasure with Rizvi's latest book, 'Muhammad,' which was released on November 4 at Ghaziabad's Dasna Devi temple in the presence of Narasimha Ananda Sarawati.