A special court in Ghaziabad on Thursday sent Samajwadi Party leader and former MP Mohammad Azam Khan to Enforcement Directorate (ED) custody for four days in the money-laundering case linked to Mohammad Ali Jauhar University in Rampur, news agency IANS reported. He is likely to be brought to Lucknow from Dasna jail on Friday for questioning, an official said.

Source: IANS

According to the remand order reported by news agency ANI, the ED custody runs from 4:30 pm on November 12 until 4:30 pm on November 16. Reports said Special CBI Judge Vinod Kumar-VI allowed the agency's application under Section 187(2) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, read with Sections 19 and 65 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. ED counsel Kuldeep Srivastava appeared for the agency, reports said.

Source: ANI via Devdiscourse

What the ED alleges

The ED alleges that proceeds of crime amounting to Rs 426.46 crore are involved in the case. The agency has provisionally attached land and buildings of the university, putting their book value at Rs 426.46 crore and claiming they represent alleged proceeds of crime. The university is run by the Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar Trust, founded by Khan. ANI reported that the agency alleges government contract funds were diverted through private contractors to the trust and the university, including as donations and construction work. The investigation also stems from FIRs alleging the forcible acquisition of agricultural land belonging to farmers for the university, IANS reported. These are allegations under investigation; the custody order is not a finding of guilt.

How the case reached this point

The ED arrested Khan on October 31, shortly after he walked out of Rampur district jail following bail in the dual PAN card case. On November 1 he was produced before the special court in Ghaziabad and remanded to judicial custody, and was lodged in Dasna jail. On November 5, a Supreme Court bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi declined to grant him immediate relief on his plea challenging the ED arrest and directed that the records be transferred to the Allahabad High Court, for listing before a division bench on November 16.

Khan's counsel questioned the timing of the arrest, pointing out that the ED's Enforcement Case Information Report was registered in 2019, more than seven years before the agency arrested him immediately after his release from prison, reports said. The ED had earlier questioned Khan on October 13 at Rampur jail and, on August 19, searched 10 premises linked to him in Uttar Pradesh and Delhi under the PMLA, ANI reported. What happens next: the agency is expected to question him in Lucknow during the four-day custody, while his challenge to the arrest is listed before the Allahabad High Court on November 16, the day the ED custody ends.