‘Return land given on lease’: Mahendra Pratap’s kin to AMU

Descendants of the late Jat king Mahendra Pratap Singh have demanded the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) to return the land given to the university by the late freedom fighter, as the 90 year lease for it has now expired.

The university’s academic council has set up a committee under vice-chancellor, professor Tariq Mansoor, to look into the issue. The committee will present its report in the next meeting of the council.

In a letter to AMU, the descendants of the late king have said the university’s ‘Tikonia Park’ and city school have been built on the land given on lease. With the duration of the lease now over, they argue, the land should be handed back to them.

They have also demanded that the city school built on the land be named after Mahendra Pratap Singh. In 2018 as well, demands were made to rename AMU after him as a row erupted over a portrait of Mohammad Ali Jinnah in the university.

Mahendra Pratap Singh was an alumnus of the Mohammedan Anglo Oriental College, which later became the AMU. In 1929, he donated 3.04 acres of land to the university.