Moments after Azam Khan steps out of Rampur jail, ED arrests him in PMLA case

Senior Samajwadi Party leader and former Uttar Pradesh Cabinet minister Azam Khan was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with a case registered in under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) soon after he stepped out of the Rampur district jail on Saturday evening.

Khan, along with his son Abdullah Azam Khan, was granted bail by the Allahabad High Court in a double PAN card case two days ago. Abdullah, also lodged in the Rampur jail, went to his home after being released from jail.

The HC, however, had dismissed their plea for staying their conviction and had fixed the hearing in the revision petition in January. The two have been in jail since their sentencing in November last year. The case pertained to Abdullah obtaining two PAN cards with different dates of birth, and his father was named as an accomplice in the alleged forgery.

The ED had registered the PMLA case over alleged financial irregularities in the construction of Mohammad Ali Jauhar University in Rampur. Azam Khan is the founder of the university and the chairperson of the Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar Trust that runs the institution.

He will be produced in a designated court in Ghaziabad on Sunday since the case is being investigated by the agency's Delhi branch, it is learnt. The day the hearing of Khan's bail was going on on Thursday, a team of ED officials from Delhi reached Rampur and launched a day-long search on the university premises and attached the campus land and buildings with a market value of more than Rs 1,000 crore.

The ED had initiated its probe after the Rampur district administration and police started filing cases against Azam and the Trust on charges of constructing the university on the land belonging to government or owned by locals, when the Samajwadi Party was in power in Uttar Pradesh and he was a minister.

The agency had alleged that government funds were diverted for developing the university and that government departments carried out the construction work on the campus. On October 13, the Rampur police also lodged another case against Khan and the Trust under charges under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and the Prevention of Corruption Act in connection with alleged financial irregularities in the construction of the university.

While his supporters were waiting for Azam Khan outside the jail, the ED team accompanied by a large contingent of CRPF personnel arrived there around 5.30 pm. The jail authorities had received the bail documents as formalities were completed earlier in the day, an official said.

As soon as Azam and Abdullah walked out of the jail gate around 6.30 pm amid sloganeering by their supporters, the ED officials approached him and showed some him documents apparently related to an arrest order. The SP leader was seen shouting at the agency officials who asked him to accompany them.

After a heated argument, Azam said addressing the mediapersons standing nearby, “Kya kahne ko hai. Kahne ko raha kya hai. Musalman hone ki saza hai. Galati ye hai..university banayi ek Musalman ne. Ye hai gunaah. Bachchon ke school banaye.

Ye hai gunaah hamara (What is left to say. This is the punishment for being a Muslim. This is the offence. A Muslim set up an university. This is the offence. Established schools for children. This is my offence).” Azam, who faces 92 FIRs lodged against him since 2019, has been convicted in nine cases, including the one in which he got the bail two days ago.

There are 81 cases pending in different courts against him. Soon after Azam's arrest by the ED, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav posted a message on X, “Let today's rulers remember that thrones change when the time changes.

The conspiracy being hatched against Mr Azam Khan through these cases is being watched not just by the entire country, but by the whole world. To implicate an elderly man in false cases and repeatedly throw them into jail is an utterly cowardly act.

When injustice crosses all limits, it turns into a calamity for the oppressor themselves. Utterly condemnable.” Bhupendra Pandey is the Resident Editor of the Lucknow edition of The Indian Express. With decades o... Read More