The PMLA court in Ghaziabad UP has sent senior Samajwadi Party leader and former lawmaker Azam Khan to 14 days of judicial custody on Sunday.
Khan will be lodged in Dasna district jail in Ghaziabad instead of Rampur from where he has been released on Saturday.
The Enforcement Directorate had produced Azam Khan before special judge anti-corruption CBI court Avinash Pandey, Avinash Kumar Pandey on Saturday amid tight security. A convoy of five vehicles brought him to the court premises after being released from Rampur jail. More than hundred personnel from the Central Reserve Police Force and the Uttar Pradesh Police are said to have accompanied him to the court premises. Khan appeared calm when he arrived at the court in an MUV car, responding to a journalist’s question, he said “Ab kya reh gaya hai bolne ko”.
The order was passed after hearing of about ninety minutes where the ED counsel Kuldeep Srivastava argued on behalf of ED’s deputy director Piyush Thorat and assistant director Praveen Kumar. The court’s order comes a day after the ED arrested Khan on Saturday evening in connection with a money laundering case registered by the agency in 2019. He was taken into custody shortly after being released from Rampur district jail and was subsequently brought to the ED headquarters in Delhi for questioning.
Moments later, Azam Khan complained of discomfort in chest and stomach ache following which he was taken to Ram Manohar Hospital and got him checked. After a clearance certificate from doctors at the RML, he was brought to the ED headquarters at the question continued.
As per sources familiar in the matter, Khan was questioned at length in connection with the alleged misuse of government funds during the construction of Mohammad Ali Jauhar University in Rampur.
After spending nearly eleven months in custody, Khan and his son Abdullah Azam were released from the Rampur jail on Saturday evening. His stemmed from an order by Allahabad High Court on October 29 that suspended his ten-year sentence in the two PAN card case. However, his release was short-lived as the ED arrested him again.