Income Tax Raids On Samajwadi Leader Azam Khan Amid INDIA Bloc Meeing Today (Image:twitter.com/Yadav__Tina__)
Income Tax raided multiple premises in Uttar Pradesh along with Madhya Pradesh and Mumbai.
Azam Khan is a Samajwadi Party MP from UP”s Rampur.
The Opposition alliance including Samajwadi Party is conducting a meeting today in Delhi.
The Income Tax (IT) department on Wednesday conducted raids linked to Samajwadi Party co-founder and MP Azam Khan at various locations in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Mumbai.
The government agency is undertaking searches on the SP leader, amid the opposition bloc INDIA meeting in Delhi, today. Samajwadi Party is also a part of INDIA alliance, which was formed in aim to take over the ruling BJP government in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal accused the central government as they are playing a “politics to arrest people through agencies”.
Around 30 premises were raided in connection with the fund misappropriation in Jauhar Ali Trust and the land acquired for Jauhar Ali University in Rampur. Muhammad Ali Jauhar University is a private university established in 2006 by the Mohammad Ali Jauhar Trust in Uttar Pradesh”s Rampur.
Officials have questioned Mr Khan”s wife Tazeen Fatma, son Abdulla Khan, and several others who are associated with him.
“They have a thinking that the opposition should be crushed by any means”, responded Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal.
The Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee also faced a notice from the Enforcement Directorate on the same day. “I want to ask why the ED notice comes on the same day as the coordination committee meeting?”, said Mr Sibal to ANI.
“ED is also moving forward with political thinking…They lost Ghosi and a raid was done on Azam Khan. Their politics is to arrest people through agencies”, he added.
#WATCH | Delhi: On ED notice to TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee and raids on SP leader Azam Khan, Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal says,”…They have a thinking that the opposition should be crushed by any means. I want to ask why the ED notice comes on the same day as the coordination… pic.twitter.com/oLSEb6YOy9
— ANI (@ANI) September 13, 2023
The searches were conducted in Rampur, Saharanpur, Lucknow, Ghaziabad and Meerut in Uttar Pradesh, apart from some locations in the neighbouring state of Madhya Pradesh and in Maharashtra”s Mumbai.
The raid is on information that Mr Khan had invested black money, along with some MP and MLA funds in the Jauhar Ali university, reported the India Today. Irregularities in the university salary system and and dysfunction of audit strategies are also noted.
Mr Khan was subjected to tax raids in earlier also.
Visuals of raid by income tax department at Azam Khan”s residence in UP”s Rampur. pic.twitter.com/OfHQfkBb9X
— Piyush Rai (@Benarasiyaa) September 13, 2023
“If the ED gets find out about illegal holding of money, then they have the right to carry out raids”, said UP Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya.
Mr Khan was disqualified by the state assembly Secretariat in October from the House after a court sentenced him to three years in jail in a hate speech case.
The case was registered in 2019, accounting the serious allegations he made during an election meeting, against administrative officials posted in Rampur along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
He was speaking in the Khatanagaria village of the Milak Kotwali area, and booked for making inflammatory speeches while addressing a public event.
Mr Khan has more than 80 cases registered against himself and spent around 27 months in jail before the Supreme Court ordered to grant him bail in all the cases, reported the Mint.
He walked out of prison in May 2022.
Previously, he served as a cabinet minister in the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party government in Uttar Pradesh between 2012-2017.
