HT has seen a copy of the order.
The Mohammad Ali Jauhar University Trust, founded and controlled by Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Azam Khan, received donations from “non-genuine sources”, including under the “political influence” of SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav , the Enforcement Directorate said in a provisional order issued on Wednesday for attaching land properties of the university.
Azam Khan has been harassed since Modi’s party came to power in UP. He made this university for providing education to the poor families in Rampur and nearby areas. We all know ED’s proceedings are biased. “ED, CBI, I-T are independent agencies working as per law and court monitoring. If the SP believes Azam Khan built a university for the poor, why are there charges of land grabbing from farmers, fake documents and money laundering? ED has claimed in its attachment order that about five hectares of government river land was enclosed within a boundary wall of the university without any proposal or lawful authority. This figure covers only the land acquired through registered sale deeds.
ED said in the order that in an October 5 statement to the agency, Om Prakash Agarwal, general secretary of the Meerut-based City Educational and Social Welfare Society and KSD Charitable Trust, said that he donated ₹ 5.23 crore and ₹ 1 crore, through these two entities , to the trust for funding construction. Subsequently, according to the ED order, another unexplained donation of ₹ 5.6 crore was received from an individual, who failed to appear before the agency. Another company, A&S Enterprises, also gave donations worth ₹ 40 lakh to the trust against which it received government contracts worth ₹ 25 crore, the order alleged, without specifying the details of the government orders. ED has claimed that the sub-registrar office at Rampur, on October 16, submitted certified copies of 115 sale deeds that were executed in favour of the Trust; the land on which the university stands was acquired for a total consideration of ₹ 4.63 crore.
“The total cost of the campus, comprising the land and the construction, therefore amounts to ₹ 499.09 crore ( ₹ 494.46 crore and ₹ 4.63 crore).
SP spokesperson Udaiveer Singh said, “ED, CBI, Income Tax department are all (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi and the BJP’s frontal organisations. They act according to the convenience of the BJP. State BJP chief spokesperson Dinesh Pratap Singh said the SP has habit of branding every investigation as political vendetta when its leaders face law. The question is not education, but loot in name of education,” Singh said. And citing the enquiry report of the district magistrate of Rampur, ED has alleged in its orderthat 45 plots at Singankheda village that are “enemy property held by a resident of Pakistan” were leaded to the trust in 2007, and the lease cancelled just a month later at the request of the District Magistrate, although the land remained in the possession of the university. It does not include the enemy property, government river land and public-use land which, as found in the inquiry of the DM and as stated by the former Tehsildar, came under the control of the university without any lawful acquisition or through exchange orders held to be irregular,” ED said in its statement. In his statement to ED, Azam Khan said he “did not recall how the land of the university was acquired and had no information on how much was purchased, taken from the government or received as a gift, and that these details are held by the university office”.
