Senior Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday minutes after his release from jail, was remanded in judicial custody for 14 days by a Ghaziabad court.
He was taken to Ghaziabad’s Dasna jail from the court following the remand order. Khan appeared calm as he was brought to the court. When he briefly rolled down the window of his car, journalists asked him if he had anything to say.
ED officials arrested him soon after he walked out of Rampur jail after spending nearly 11 months in prison. Five ED vehicles entered the court complex at 10.30 am in the presence of nearly 100 personnel from the police and paramilitary forces.
“We requested the court to grant 14 days of judicial custody, and the court has allowed our plea,” an ED official said. After he was arrested, SP spokesperson Abbas Haider said his fresh arrest also was motivated by politics. “BJP government, unable to keep Azam Khan Sahib behind bars through its existing cases, appears determined to implicate him in fresh cases through central agencies,” Haider said.
Khan was arrested by ED on Saturday evening in connection with money laundering charges related to misuse of government funds in the construction of Mohammad Ali Jauhar University in Rampur. On Sunday, the agency produced him before the special PMLA court under tight security.
