Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan who is lodged in Sitapur Jail was interrogated by a two-member team of the Enforcement Directorate on Monday in connection with a money laundering case.
As per reports, Khan was questioned for the funding of his Jauhar University in Rampur which allegedly received donations from abroad as well. The interrogation took place in the wake of the Rampur district administration’s move to take back 70 hectares of land from Mohammad Jauhar University last week. The university is operated by Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar Trust headed by Azam Khan.
Azam Khan and his son have been lodged in jail since February 2020 in a case pertaining to a fake birth certificate produced by Khan’s son Abdullah Azam who had won from Suar assembly seat in 2017. Abdullah Azam was also detained in August 2019 from Mohammad Ali Jauhar University for hindering investigation as the premises were being raided to recover books stolen from a 250-year-old madrasa. The father-son duo is facing cases pertaining to land grabbing by the university.
Earlier this year, Khan had been shifted to the Medanta hospital in Gurugram following post-COVID complications. He was discharged on September 10 and sent back to jail.
Dons and politicians Mukhtar Ansari and Atique Ahmad also under ED radar
Besides Azam Khan, the Enforcement Directorate is on the anvil to interrogate BSP MLA Mukhtar Ansari in connection with money laundering charges. Former MP Atique Ahmad is also under the ED scanner.
Mukhtar Ansari is held in Banda jail in UP while Atiq Ahmad is lodged in Ahmedabad jail in Gujarat.
Gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari had been booked by Ghazipur police under the Uttar Pradesh Gangster and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act. The UP government has been demolishing multiple illegal properties of Ansari spread across the state and had also cracked down on Ansari’s aides and associates, as well as his illegal businesses. Ansari, the descendant of a politically powerful family linked with Congress leaders and has been a mafia don and MLA for several consecutive terms.
Atique Ahmad, ex-MP from Praygraj, is accused of 103 murders and currently serving jail time in Ahmedabad. He has more than 90 criminal cases, including those of murders, abductions, illegal mining, extortion, intimidation and fraud, against him. He was shifted there from Uttar Pradesh to Ahmedabad on the Supreme Court’s directions in 2019.
Till now, police have taken action on his properties worth more than Rs 200 crore. These actions were taken against Atiq Ahmed under the Gangster Act Besides demolishing the buildings, illegally built by Atiq and his men, the Allahabad district administration has also attached his several properties and those of his associates.
