The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached land and buildings belonging to the Mohammad Ali Jauhar University in Rampur, promoted by Samajwadi Party leader and former Uttar Pradesh Cabinet Minister Azam Khan, with a current market value of approximately ₹1,170 crore.
The action, taken under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, is part of a money laundering investigation against the Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar Trust, Azam Khan, and others. While the properties are registered at ₹426.46 crore as proceeds of crime, officials pegged their present market value at about ₹1,170 crore
The ED’s findings: “Public funds diverted”
According to the ED, the probe was initiated based on 26 FIRs registered at Azeem Nagar police station in Rampur, which say that agricultural land belonging to farmers was forcibly taken over for the university.
A district administration inquiry also found that 45 plots of “enemy property” spanning about 34 acres in Singhankhera village were illegally occupied by Azam Khan for the university, even after the Custodian of Enemy Property had cancelled the lease to the trust.
The ED further said that funds meant for public works were diverted to the university, government works were executed on its private campus, and contractors awarded state contracts routed funds back to the trust as donations.
Specifically, the ED claimed that the managing director of a firm with Public Works Department contracts worth nearly ₹186 crore admitted that 30–40% of the contract value was used to buy construction material for the university. Another firm donated ₹40 lakh to the trust. The probe also found that cleaning machinery purchased for the Rampur Nagar Palika was diverted to the university campus.
The ED also flagged the use of ₹6.60 crore from MLA and MLC local area development schemes for works inside the university through Uttar Pradesh Jal Nigam, and noted that the UP government had sanctioned ₹23.41 crore for a pandal, OBC boys’ hostel, and hospital block on the campus. The Income Tax Department had earlier cancelled the trust’s registration under the Income Tax Act.
OpIndia ground report
According to OpIndia’s ground report, there was a flyover built in 2013-14 at a cost of around Rs. 150 Cr. that interestingly starts from Azam Khan’s ancestral home and goes to Jauhar University. Unlike Rampur’s other busy roads, the flyover is mostly empty. A local man said that the flyover is used mainly by students going to and from Jauhar University, while most people in Rampur gain little to no practical benefit from it.
After visiting the flyover, OpIndia team talked to the locals. One woman named Kamlesh said that her four bigha land was forcibly taken. “Our valuable land was taken for a very small amount. We did not want to give it, but we are poor people. What could we do?” she said.
A man named Bhagwan Das also said that his land was forcibly taken. People feared that if they refused to sell the land, they could be jailed.
According to him, the flyover has not helped villagers in any way. He believes that if a normal road had been built instead of an elevated flyover, the area could have developed. Shops, houses and small businesses could have come up, benefiting local people. Instead, he said, the project mainly served Azam Khan’s own purpose.
Some villagers also claimed off-camera that the flyover was built so Azam Khan could travel directly from his home to Jauhar University without getting stuck in city traffic.
At Kishanpur village, which is located below the flyover, people talked to OpIndia. Dinesh, a resident of the village, said that the village has received no benefit from the flyover. Instead, people had hoped a road would be built underneath it, but that never happened.
According to Ummed Singh, part of his land was also acquired forcefully for the flyover. Kaanungo and Tehsildar forced him to complete the registration.
He also said that the RTO has taken money from drivers and that 40% of it went to Jauhar University. He blamed Azam Khan and the Samajwadi government for harassing the people of Rampur. He added that action being taken under the Yogi Adityanath government is the result of those past actions.
The trust and the university
The university campus at Jauhar Nagar, Village Singhankhera, Rampur, is managed by the Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar Trust, which was founded and is controlled by Azam Khan. He also serves as the university’s honorary chancellor. The Lucknow-headquartered trust lists Khan as its main trustee, along with family members and associates, and runs the Mohammad Ali Jauhar University.
The ED had earlier raided multiple locations linked to the trust and the university in August 2026 and questioned Khan, who is currently lodged in Rampur jail, for nearly eight hours. The agency shared its findings with Uttar Pradesh Police under Section 66(2) of the PMLA, leading to a fresh FIR against Khan and the trust on 13 October 2026 under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Prevention of Corruption Act.
