On Friday, just minutes after being released on bail from Rampur Jail, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) detained Samajwadi Party chief Azam Khan. The agency nabbed the former Uttar Pradesh minister out of jail in a suspected money laundering case.
A Lucknow Zonal Office official confirmed the development, saying the agency would go through the formalities of arrest and present Khan in front of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Ghaziabad.
Probe Involves Jauhar University
The ED is probing on the money laundering allegations against Azam Khan and other accused Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar Trust. The agency on Wednesday placed on its biomass land and buildings belonging to Mohammad Ali Jauhar University in Rampur, whose current market value is estimated at about ₹1,170 crore.
The university is owned by the Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar Trust, controlled and established by Khan who lives in Jauhar Nagar village. He is also honorary chancellor of its.
ED Identifies ₹426.46 Crore as Alleged Proceeds of Crime
The ED’s Lucknow Zonal Office in a statement said that it under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act detected the assets worth of ₹ 426.46 crore as POCs.
The agency stated that money from the government, construction materials, and donations by contractors who were completing public projects were used to fund the construction of the university campus.
The ED used this process to arrive at the value of the attachment, by adding up the cost of the university campus with the expenditure that the ED deemed to be backed by legitimate sources.
The probe into alleged diversion of money and money laundering continues.