In a fresh blow to Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan, the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh has taken over the land belonging to Mohammad Ali Jauhar University, run by a Trust headed by Azam Khan. According to reports, Jauhar University’s land will now be registered in the name of the state government in the revenue records.
The order to acquire the land was passed by Rampur ADM (Administration) Jagdamba Prasad Gupta after the Court on January 16th ruled that the land needed to be returned to the government since the Jauhar Ali trust did not fulfil the conditions set by the state government during the sale of the land to the Jauhar University in 2005.
“When a person or organization has to buy more than 12.5 acres of land, then permission has to be sought from the state government. The state government had set some conditions at the time of the sale of this particular land. One of the conditions set by the state government was that the land would be used for charitable work. The court found that it was not being done. Other conditions included that no purchase will be done from people who belong to SC and ST categories and that gram samaj land will not be taken over. The UP Revenue Act rules were also being violated by the Trust. The land will now be registered in the name of the government in revenue records,” Tiwari said.
Rampur administration proposes to bring Azam Khan’s Jauhar University under State Govt control
In March last year, Rampur Administration had proposed that UP government should take over the control of Rampur based Mohammad Ali Jauhar University after it was reported that the half of the land the University is grabbing belongs to the State Government.
Muhammad Ali Jauhar University was established in 2006 and registered under section 2(F) of the University Grants Act, 1956. Jauhar University is located in Rampur city of Uttar Pradesh.
As per the Additional District Magistrate, a nine-member committee produced a report that states that out of 78 hectares, 36 hectare land of Jauhar University is owned by the state. The report asserts that more than 88 Crore in the total 163 Crore used to run the university was sanctioned as part of state funds.
Notably, Azam Khan is the founder and lifetime chancellor of Maulana Jauhar Ali University. Khan’s wife Tanzeen Fatma, his two sons are members of the Trust. Azam’s elder sister is the Trust’s treasurer.
As per Additional district government counsel (ADGC-civil) Ajay Tiwari, the court had issued notices to Khan, but the SP leader had refused to accept the notices.
Several land grabbing cases registered against SP leader Azam Khan
Around 80 cases have been filed against Azam Khan, many of which are regarding land encroachment by Jauhar University. The family of Azam Khan surrendered in court on 26 February in connection with multiple cases of land grabbing and theft against them.
A large number of farmers had filed cases against him accusing him of grabbing their land for the university. It was alleged that Azam Khan had got the farmers abducted that they had refused to sell land to him, and registered their land in the name of the university without any payment, with the help of local officials.