Graft charges against Azam Khan under ED scan

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is  scrutinising details of the charges levelled against Samajwadi Party (SP) MP Azam Khan by the Uttar Pradesh police as part of its investigation into a money laundering case against him.

Sources said, “The agency sleuths are scrutinising details of his (Azam Khan) statements given before the state police as well as charges levelled against the SP leader pertaining to the illegal possession of land belonging to farmers and also the alleged tampering with documents pertaining to certain immovable properties linked to him or organisations linked to him”. When asked about the reported statements given by the senior officials of the state police that the arrest of the SP leader is ‘imminent’, sleuths of the central probe agency said, “Nothing can be ruled out”. Let the agency sleuths complete the scrutiny of the charges against him complete, sources clarified.  

The ED recently registered a criminal case of money laundering against Azam Khan in connection with multiple alleged land grab cases registered against him in Uttar Pradesh. The agency took cognisance of at least 26 UP Police FIRs against the MP to file its Enforcement Case Information Report. (ECIR). The ECIR is Enforcement Directorate’s equivalent of a police FIR. Sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act have been pressed against Khan and others who are alleged to have grabbed land by threatening extortion.

The ED is probing if the proceeds of crime of the alleged land grab and extortion were used by Khan and others to create personal assets, which could be attached under PMLA and subsequent prosecution could be launched. The former Uttar Pradesh minister has been named in the FIRs lodged in connection with alleged forcible acquisition of land for the Mohammad Ali Jauhar University, of which he is the founder and Chancellor. The SP had alleged that the move was a conspiracy by the Rampur District Magistrate to defame Khan and the university. Rampur MP Khan’s name was also put on an online list of “land mafias” by the district administration recently.