ED searches premises of Azam Khan's Trust, university in money laundering probe

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday carried out searches at multiple locations connected to the Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar Trust and the Muhammad Ali Jauhar University, which are associated with Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan, as part of a money laundering investigation, officials said.

The searches covered approximately ten premises in Rampur and Saharanpur districts of Uttar Pradesh and in Delhi's Jamia Nagar, and were conducted with the support of a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) security team, the officials added.

The action follows the registration of a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), after the agency allegedly found evidence of diversion of funds from government contracts through private contractors. The funds are suspected to have been used, among other things, for creating assets for the Trust and the university.

The searched locations include the residence and office of a chartered accountant in Saharanpur, as well as two companies and their promoters believed to be linked to the Trust, according to ED officials.

The Lucknow-headquartered Trust is named after Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar, a distinguished leader of the Indian independence movement and a co-founder of Jamia Millia Islamia. The Trust has Khan, a former Cabinet minister in the Uttar Pradesh government and currently in jail, as its main trustee, and includes some of his family members and associates in that role.

The Trust operates the Muhammad Ali Jauhar University, established in 2006, and a public school in Rampur district. The university has thousands of students and is a significant educational institution in the region.

The institution faced a fresh challenge in July when the Rampur Development Authority (RDA) directed it to demolish 38 of its 40 buildings. The RDA alleged that the constructions were carried out without approved building plans under the Uttar Pradesh Urban Planning and Development Act, 1973.

The students of the university protested against this order, expressing concern that their studies would be badly affected. Following the protests, the Divisional Commissioner intervened and stayed the demolition, instructing the authorities not to take any administrative action until further orders, providing temporary relief to the university in its long-running dispute with the local development body.

The Samajwadi Party and other opposition parties have condemned both the demolition order and the ED searches, accusing the authorities of political vendetta. They have urged the administration to consider all legal aspects before making any move against the university.

The ED has not yet issued a public statement regarding the searches, and representatives of Azam Khan could not be reached for comment. The development comes amid ongoing debates over the use of federal investigating agencies, with opposition parties repeatedly alleging that they are being used to target political rivals, a charge that the agencies and the central government have consistently denied.