ED flags donations to Jauhar university in attachment order against Azam Khan

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. HT has seen a copy of the order.

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.

It added that Agarwal claimed these contributions were made under the influence of Mulayam Singh Yadav at a gathering in Delhi in 2012, in the presence of Azam Khan. He added that his (Agarwal’s) wife, Sarojini Agarwal, then a member of the legislative council in Uttar Pradesh, recommended construction work at the university from her MLC fund on directions conveyed by SRS Yadav on behalf of Mulayam Singh Yadav. Mulayam Singh Yadav died in October 2022 after a prolonged illness.

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. 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.”

State BJP chief spokesperson Dinesh Pratap Singh said the SP has habit of branding every investigation as political vendetta when its leaders face law. “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? The question is not education, but loot in name of education,” Singh said.

“When agencies act against corruption, the SP cries conspiracy. Courts have not given clean chit to Azam Khan, they have convicted him in several cases. Instead of defending land grab, the SP should answer people of Rampur,” he added.

ED’s provisional attachment order, dated October 28, and issued under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) was used to attach attaching land and buildings belonging to Jauhar university worth ₹1,170 crore at current market prices .

ED further claimed in its order that during his questioning by ED on October 13 inside Rampur District Jail, Khan acknowledged that Agarwal may have made a donation on the advice of Mulayam Singh Yadav. He told ED -- his statement is part of the attachment order -- that the donations were made for a noble cause, for which he was grateful.

HT tried to reach out to Khan’s lawyers but did not get a response.

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.

Stressing that these donations totalling ₹12.29 crore were received from “non-genuine sources”, the ED order said a substantial amount “was not voluntary charitable giving and cannot therefore be accepted as a legitimate source of the capital expenditure”.

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. 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.

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). This figure covers only the land acquired through registered sale deeds. 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”.

ED has concluded in its order that the university was established and expanded through diversion of government contract funds and construction material, execution of government works on its private campus, receipt of non-genuine donations, and extortion. The agency’s order further alleges that contacts worth ₹23.43 crore, including a pandal, an OBC hostel, and a hospital block , were executed at the private university by UP Jal Nigam. Khan was the chairman of the Jal Nigam at the time.

“A public asset created with state funds was thereby converted into the private property of the university by successive alteration of the sanction conditions, which Azam Khan was unable to explain,” ED said in its order.