New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached land and buildings belonging to the Mohammad Ali Jauhar University in Rampur worth approximately Rs 1,170 crore (registered at Rs 426.46 crore), under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, in connection with a case against a trust controlled by former Uttar Pradesh Cabinet Minister Mohammad Azam Khan and others.
According to an ED official, the university campus at Jauhar Nagar, Village Singhankhera, Rampur, is held by the Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar Trust, which was founded and is controlled by Azam Khan, who is also the honorary Chancellor of the university.
The ED initiated an investigation under PMLA on the basis of 26 FIRs registered at Azeem Nagar police station alleging that agricultural land belonging to farmers was forcibly taken over for the university in 2019.
“As per the inquiry report of the District Administration, Rampur, 45 plots measuring about 34 acres at Village Singhankhera were also illegally occupied by Mohammad Azam Khan for the university, even after the lease of this land to the trust had been cancelled by the Custodian,” an ED official said.
“The possession of this land has been taken back by the Custodian of Enemy Property, MHA, through the District Administration, Rampur,” the official said.
‘Public funds diverted, government contracts used’
According to the officer, during the investigation, the ED found that funds meant for public works were diverted to the university, government works were executed on its private campus, and funds from contractors who had been allotted government contracts were routed back to the trust as donations at a time Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan was the Minister for Urban Development in the Akhilesh Yadav-led state government.
The ED shared this information with the Uttar Pradesh Police in 2019, following which a case was registered at Azeem Nagar police station in Rampur against Azam Khan, the trust and others.
The ED has also taken up 28 other FIRs registered by the Rampur Police against Azam Khan and others for investigation, in most of which charge sheets have been filed.
“These FIRs and charge sheets allege that, during 2016, the houses of several families in Rampur city, many of them tenants of Waqf property, were demolished with bulldozers by a mob allegedly led by the then circle officer and others on the instructions of Mohd Azam Khan,” the officer said. “The debris of the demolished houses was transported to the university.”
He further alleged that the occupants were assaulted, threatened with false criminal cases, and robbed of their cash, jewellery and cattle.
The FIRs and charge sheets further allege that cleaning machinery purchased for the Rampur Nagar Palika was diverted to the university premises.
“Investigation under PMLA revealed that contractors, mostly based in Rampur, diverted funds and construction material from the government contracts to the construction of the university,” the officer said.
The ED has also alleged that the managing director of one construction company, which received PWD contracts worth about Rs 186 crore, admitted that 30 to 40 percent of the contract value was used to buy construction material for the university.
“The partners of another firm admitted that they operated under the influence of Mohammad Azam Khan, and the firm donated Rs 40 lakh to the trust. It is further revealed that, in similar findings, the Income Tax Department has revoked the registration of the trust under the provisions of the Income Tax Act, 1961,” the officer said.
Govt-funded assets transferred
The investigation further revealed that various works worth Rs 6.60 crore were executed on the private campus of the university using MLA and MLC local area development funds.
According to the ED, these works were executed by the Uttar Pradesh Jal Nigam, of which Azam Khan was then the chairman.
The trust also received donations of Rs 6.24 crore from two Meerut-based educational entities through political influence, the agency alleged.
The ED further found that the Akhilesh-Yadav-led Uttar Pradesh government had sanctioned Rs 23.41 crore for the construction of a pandal, an OBC boys hostel and a hospital block on the private campus of the university.
A government order issued in 2015, sanctioning Rs 12.16 crore for the pandal, stipulated that its ownership would remain with the Uttar Pradesh Culture Department. It also specified that the pandal could neither be sold nor transferred and would be made available free of cost for use by the state government.
However, according to the ED, these conditions were altered through a subsequent government order in 2016. The ownership of the pandal was transferred to Jauhar University, while the condition requiring its use by the state government was deleted.
The agency alleged that a public asset constructed using state funds was thus converted into the private property of the university.
During 2015 and 2016, when these orders were issued by the Akhilesh Yadav-led state government, Azam Khan was a cabinet minister, holding the Urban Development portfolio. The Uttar Pradesh Jal Nigam, which executed these works on the university campus, functioned under his department.
ED flags Rs 426.46 cr unexplained expenditure
According to the ED, the District Valuation Officer, an independent valuer, assessed the construction cost of 59 buildings on the university campus at Rs 494.46 crore in a report dated 10 November 2023.
The land acquired for the university through 114 sale deeds was valued at Rs 4.63 crore, taking the total cost of the campus to Rs 499.09 crore.
Against this, the trust had shown capital expenditure of only Rs 78.32 crore in its income tax returns, ED said in a statement.
The ED further found that donations amounting to Rs 12.29 crore out of this expenditure were non-genuine, leaving Rs 66.03 crore as genuine expenditure by the trust towards the construction of buildings and acquisition of land.
According to the agency, only Rs 72.63 crore of the total campus cost could be explained through legitimate sources.
Earlier, on 19 August 2026, the ED had conducted searches at the university and related premises, during which electronic devices and incriminating records were seized.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
Also read: Azam Khan must face the law. His Jauhar University students shouldn’t pay the price