ED summons Azam wife, son in land-grab, laundering case | India News

NEW DELHI: The ED has summoned the wife and son of Samajwadi Party’s Rampur MLA Azam Khan for questioning in connection with a land grab and money laundering case against the SP leader and his family.
The SP leader and his son Abdullah were recently released on bail after two years in prison. While Abdullah was jailed for false affidavit related to his age furnished before the Election Commission, his father was arrested on charges of forgery. The Khans were also accused in multiple other cheating and forgery cases and those related to land grabs.
The fresh summons issued to Tazeen Fatima and her son comes soon after Azam Khan received a major setback with SP candidate losing the bypolls in his stronghold of Rampur. There is also a reported rift between him and party chief Akhilesh Yadav.
The ED has questioned Khan and his son multiple times earlier in custody while they were lodged in Sitapur jail. The UP government had also moved to reclaim 170 acres of land controlled by Khan’s Md Ali Jauhar University trust in Rampur. The UP police and central agencies are investigating several other land grab cases against him.
Khan and mafia dons of UP such as Mukhtar Ansari and Atiq Ahmad were jailed in connection with extortion and money laundering charges. Ansari was lodged in Banda district jail and Atiq Ahmad was kept in Sabarmati jail in Ahmedabad.
Azam Khan had at least 35 cases against him in which he has obtained bail while his son faces more than 40. Mukhtar Ansari has 49 FIRs registered against him in cases related to murder, extortion and land grabbing. He also faces a case of laundering MLA local area development funds and grabbing properties of evacuees who had migrated to Pakistan. Ansari and his wife run half-a-dozen companies that are being accused of grabbing government land in Mau besides other places.