LUCKNOW The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is questioning Samajwadi Party leader and former UP cabinet minister Mohammad Azam Khan over the alleged diversion of ₹426.46 crore in public funds and assets to Mohammad Ali Jauhar University in Rampur. Investigators are focusing on government contracts, construction material, land acquisitions and financial transactions involving entities linked to the university.
Khan is in four-day ED custody, from Thursday evening until November 16 afternoon, at the agency’s Delhi headquarters. Investigators are confronting him with financial records and details of transactions allegedly routed through companies and suspected shell entities to establish the source and utilisation of funds used for the university’s construction and expansion.
A senior ED official said a major focus of the interrogation is the alleged diversion of funds from Public Works Department (PWD) contracts worth around ₹186 crore. According to the agency’s investigation, a company awarded these contracts allegedly diverted 30-40% of the contract amount towards purchasing construction material for the university. Investigators are seeking Khan’s explanation about who authorised the transactions, how the material was procured and transported, and who benefitted from the arrangement.
The agency is also examining the alleged use of ₹6.60 crore from MLA/MLC local area development funds for campus development and another ₹23.41 crore sanctioned for a pandal, an OBC boys’ hostel and a hospital block. The questioning covers the decisions behind these allocations, the agencies executing the projects and the actual utilisation of the money.
{{/usCountry}}The agency is also examining the alleged use of ₹6.60 crore from MLA/MLC local area development funds for campus development and another ₹23.41 crore sanctioned for a pandal, an OBC boys’ hostel and a hospital block. The questioning covers the decisions behind these allocations, the agencies executing the projects and the actual utilisation of the money.
{{/usCountry}}Another line of interrogation concerns the Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar Trust, founded by Khan and responsible for running the university. The ED is investigating the role of multiple entities and suspected shell companies allegedly used to route funds and conceal their beneficiaries. Investigators are seeking to establish their ownership, financial controllers and the individuals who authorised transactions.
Khan is also being questioned about the alleged acquisition and occupation of around 34 acres of enemy property, comprising 45 plots in Singankheda village of Rampur, and the circumstances in which the land came under the university’s control.
The agency’s investigation into the university’s assets forms the basis of the ₹426.46-crore alleged proceeds of crime. On October 28, the ED attached its land and buildings, whose estimated market value is around ₹1,170 crore. According to its assessment, the cost of 59 buildings and 114 land sale deeds is ₹499.09 crore, against which it establishes legitimate funding of only ₹72.63 crore. Investigators are seeking an explanation for the remaining amount.
Special judge (PMLA), Ghaziabad, on Thursday granted the four-day remand after the ED argued that Khan’s responses during earlier questioning were allegedly evasive and his custodial interrogation is necessary to unravel the money trail.
The money-laundering investigation originates from 26 FIRs registered at Azeem Nagar police station in Rampur in July 2019. The complaints allege that farmers in Singankheda village were threatened, assaulted and unlawfully confined to force them to transfer their agricultural land in favour of the university. The ED subsequently expanded its probe to alleged diversion of government funds and construction material.
Khan was arrested by the agency on October 31 and initially remanded to 14 days’ judicial custody before the court granted the present custodial remand.