New Delhi: The Faridabad-based Al-Falah University collected over Rs 415 crore in fees and other payments, without a valid accreditation, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has alleged. The agency made the allegation after scrutinising the university’s and its affiliated colleges’ financial documents, including income tax returns. The university also runs the Al Falah School of Medical Sciences and Research Centre, which has been on the radar of authorities in the aftermath of the blast near Delhi’s Red Fort that claimed 15 lives.
The ED submitted its findings before a special court in Delhi Tuesday night, when Al-Falah’s founder, Javed Ahmad Siddiqui, was produced after his arrest earlier the same day.
The agency’s money laundering investigation against Al-Falah began last week, when it opened an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) based on two FIRs registered by the Delhi Police Crime Branch.
On Tuesday, ED raided nearly 20 locations in Delhi-NCR, including the university’s Faridabad premises and the registered office of the Al-Falah Charitable Trust in Delhi’s Okhla. The raids culminated in Siddiqui’s arrest around 8 pm, following which he was produced before a court in Delhi, which sent him to the agency’s custody for 13 days.
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‘Arrest crucial to map laundering network’: ED
Making its arguments before the special court, the agency submitted that the Delhi Police Crime Branch registered FIRs on allegations that the university made fraudulent and misleading claims of National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) accreditation.
It misrepresented on its website the expiration of accreditations for its colleges, such as the Al-Falah School of Engineering and Technology (2013-2018) and the Department of Teacher Education (2011-2016), even though it did not seek renewal of those accreditations.
Reacting to these allegations of misrepresentation, the NAAC last week issued a show cause notice to the university’s registrar, two days after the Delhi blast.
The second FIR dealt with the university allegedly claiming recognition by the University Grants Commission (UGC) under section 12(B), which allows private institutions to be eligible for grants from the central government. The FIR alleged that the university was accredited only as a private state university, and it had never applied for inclusion under Section 12(B) of the UGC.
These claims, the agency argued, were made with the intention to cheat aspirants, students, parents, guardians, stakeholders, and the general public, and to cause wrongful loss to them.
Presenting a financial breakdown, the agency submitted before the court that the university earned Rs 30.89 crore and Rs 29.48 crore in the financial years 2014-15 and 2015-16, respectively. These incomes were shown as “voluntary contributions corpus donation” in its financial statements.
However, the university declared a substantial portion of its income since the financial year 2016-17 as “receipts from main object” or “educational revenue” that the agency argued was nothing but fees and payments made by students and their guardians.
Over nine years between 2016 and 2025, when the university was not accredited, it generated an income of Rs 415.10 crore, which the agency has classified as proceeds of crime because, arguing that this income was generated through deception and cheating. The university declared Rs 68.87 crore and Rs 80.10 crore as “educational revenue” in the last two financial years, 2023-2025, the agency submitted in the remand application.
The agency further submitted that Siddiqui is the head of the university’s governing body, as well as the trustee of the trust that primarily runs the university and all affiliated colleges. The agency submitted that the chief financial officer and legal adviser Mohammed Razi stated in his statement that Siddiqui was the final decision-maker on financial matters related to the university. It further justified Siddiqui’s arrest, submitting that Rs 415.10 crore is only a portion of the alleged proceeds of crime generated by Al-Falah.
“(Need) to expose roles of other persons and entities in the laundering chain. Multiple family members and close associates appear as trustees, directors and office bearers across the Al-Falah trust, university and related entities. However, multiple evidences have shown that arrestee/accused controls the entire affair,” ED submitted in its remand application.
Adding, “The granular roles in designing and approving the false NAAC/UGC claims, structuring and operating the fee collection mechanisms, and deciding on deployment of funds into properties and other assets, can only be properly ascertained by confronting them with arrestee/accused’s version and documents in custody. His arrest is crucial to map the entire laundering network and fix responsibility on all involved.”
(Edited by Viny Misra)
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