Waqf board makes Rampur royal family caretaker of ‘Azam encroached properties’

“There were allegations that Azam Khan had encroached several Waqf properties in Rampur and had distributed the custodianship of the properties to his people. At least seven such properties in Rampur, which are valued hundreds of crores, have been returned to the family of the Rampur Nawab’s family,” Ali Zaidi, chairman of Shia Central Waqf Board, told The Sunday Express.

“There were also allegations that people working at these properties had not received salaries for the past 13 months. Haider Ali Khan alias Hamza Miyan, the grandson of Begum Noorbano of the royal family, has been made the caretaker,”Zaidi, who was elected chairman of the Board last November, said, adding the decision was taken during the March 31 meeting of the Waqf Board.

Khan was elected MLA from Rampur in the just concluded Assembly elections. He is currently in Sitapur jail in connection with several cases of land grabbing. As per the Rampur police record, as many as 81 cases were lodged against Azam Khan since the BJP government came to power in the state in 2017.

Notably, the erstwhile royal family of Rampur is an old rival of Azam Khan; and the two families have been at loggerheads for decades. In the recent Assembly polls, the two families were locked in electoral contests. While Kazim Ali Khan, a descendant of the erstwhile royal family, took on Azam in Rampur on a Congress ticket, his 30-year-old son Haider Ali Khan was pitted against Azam’s son Abdullah in Suar by BJP ally Apna Dal(S). Both Azam and his son Abdullah won the election comfortably.

An official of the Waqf Board on Saturday said that after the formation of the SP government in 2012, many Waqf properties were allegedly “encroached” by Azam Khan, who was then the Waqf Minister.

Following the reorganisation of the Shia Waqf Board last November, an inquiry was conducted into complaints of illegal occupation of the Waqf properties. The official said that Azam Khan could not give “satisfactory answers” during the probe. “During the SP government, there were several such illegal occupations undertaken by Azam Khan. The action has been taken as per rules and regulations of the Waqf Properties Act,” added the official.