The Income Tax (IT) Department’s raids continued for a second day on Thursday at various locations linked to the Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Azam Khan in connection with Ali Jauhar Trust.
At least 30 teams of the IT Department are continuously engaged in investigation on the premises of Mr. Khan’s house in Rampur, the Muhammad Ali Jauhar University premises, house of Chamraua MLA from the SP Naseer Ahmad Khan, apart from the establishment of CA P Gopal & Company on Delhi Road in Saharanpur. The IT team also searched a residence at New Samrat Vikram Colony in Saharanpur. Raids continue at various other locations in Lucknow, Saharanpur and Ghaziabad among a few other districts in Uttar Pradesh.
Their is no official word from the IT Department but it is believed the raids are linked to the Ali Jauhar Trust which runs the Muhammad Ali Jauhar University in Rampur whose founder and chancellor is Mr. Khan.
Mr. Khan, a leading figure of the SP from the minority community and a former 10-time MLA, faced multiple cases since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) come to power in U.P. and spent more than two years in jail since 2017. The SP leaders reacted sharply over the raids, calling them the ‘fear ‘of the ruling dispensation after the Mau Assembly bypoll defeat. “The raids shows frustration of the BJP-government, they fear the SP and leader like Azam Saheb, who stood for socialist ideas and upliftment of marginalised communities come what may since five decades. The BJP will again be defeated in the courts for these ‘vendetta’ tactics’,” SP spokesperson Ameeque Jamei told The Hindu. Earlier on Thursday SP president Akhilesh Yadav also described the raids ‘vendetta’ politics of the ruling BJP, adding the SP stood with Mr. Khan.
Mr. Khan has been convicted in three cases since October 2022. In one of these cases, the lower court judgment was overturned on appeal, and he was acquitted in May, 2023. However, his initial conviction in the case last October had triggered his disqualification from the Uttar Pradesh Assembly membership, leading to a by-election for the Rampur seat, which was won by the BJP’s Akash Saxena.
