New Delhi: Digging deeper into the financial empire of the founder of Faridabad’s Al-Falah University, Javed Ahmad Siddiqui, the Enforcement Directorate has allegedly stumbled upon a list of land parcels purchased through forged powers of attorney, which, in some cases were executed decades after the death of the owners.
The agency has so far found at least 50 land parcels—all in Delhi—acquired by Sidiqqui’s private, not-for-profit company Tarbiya Education Foundation, all on the same day—27 June 2013—and through the same agent, sources privy to the case told ThePrint.
These details regarding forgery and irregularities allegedly committed by Al-Falah founder Siddiqui have emerged in a money laundering probe initiated by the Enforcement Directorate after it was found that those allegedly behind the Red Fort blast were doctors and residents of the Al-Falah university.
The agency had last week arrested Siddiqui on charges including amassing Rs 410 crore from students of his sprawling Al-Falah university in Faridabad without necessary accreditation.
Siddiqui in ED custody
Tarbiya Education Foundation is one of the newly incorporated firms of Siddiqui, with his younger brother, Sufyan Ahmad Siddiqui, as the other director. Corporate records show Tarbiya Education Foundation was incorporated in November 2012. Months later, the land parcel was transferred to the firm through an allegedly forged power of attorney, a probe by the ED has revealed.
As reported earlier by ThePrint, Al-Falah founder Siddiqui is a director in at least nine companies, including Tarbiya Education Foundation, as well as a Trustee of the Al-Falah Charitable Trust that runs the Al-Falah group of educational institutions, where a group of alleged terror suspects worked as doctors and conspired to carry out a terror attack in Delhi.
The bombing outside the Red Fort in Delhi on 10 November left 15 people dead, and more than 30 injured, bringing the spotlight on the Al Falah School of Medical Sciences and Research Centre, where the alleged suicide bomber, Dr Umar-un-Nabi, was an employee. Two more employees of the college—Dr Muzammil Shakil and Dr Shaheen Saeed were already in the custody of the Jammu and Kashmir Police as part of a probe into the module behind posters of the Jaish-e-Mohammed in Srinagar.
‘The dead man scam’
The agency’s money laundering probe stems from two FIRs filed by the Delhi Police Crime Branch registered after the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) had issued a show-cause notice to the Al-Falah university, flagging that it had made fraudulent and misleading claims of 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, the NAAC had alleged.
The agency last week carried out raids at around 20 locations in Delhi-NCR, targeting various premises linked to Siddiqui and firms he had incorporated over the years.
In reviewing the documents, the agency has found that one Vinod Kumar held powers of attorney for more than 50 landowners, including five who were dead by the time the power of attorney was registered on 7 January 2004.
Landowner Harbans Singh died in April 1991, followed by Harkesh, who died in 1993, followed by Shiv Dayal, who died in January 1998 and Jay Ram, who died in October 1998, sources privy to the findings of the probe told ThePint. One of the landowners, Nathu, had died in January 1972, sources said.
ThePrint has reviewed a sale deed executed between Vinod Kumar and Al-Falah founder Jawed Ahmad Siddiqui on 27 June 2013, for Rs 75,000, paid through eight cheques and seven demand drafts of Rs 5 lakh each, to acquire these land parcels in Delhi’s Madanpur Khadar.
“The investigation reveals that these GPAs, which formed the basis of the sale deed that transferred land to Tarbiya Education Foundation, were false and fabricated. The signatures/thumb impressions of the deceased were forged. The ultimate beneficiary is Tarbiya Education Foundation, which purchased the land based on this forged GPA by the sellers,” an official privy to the case details said.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
Also read: Al-Falah founder’s arrest ‘key to mapping laundering nexus’. What ED told Delhi court