The district administration of Rampur is likely to list senior Samajwadi Party leader and local parliamentarian as ‘land mafia’ in the ‘Bhoo Mafia’ portal.

The Rampur district administration has already slapped over two dozen cases on local MP Mohammad Azam Khan for forcibly acquiring private farmland of farmers and land along the banks of river Kosi for Mohammed Ali Jauhar University, a private institution promoted by the SP leader.

The ‘Bhoo Mafia’ (land mafia) portal was launched by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, in May 2017 to identify land mafia and register land-grabbing complaints of people.

According to Rampur district administration, Azam Khan faces more than 30 cases out of which majority of the cases relate to grabbing of either government land or land belonging to poor farmers. 

Superintendent of Police of Rampur, Ajay Pal Sharma, said that keeping in mind the long history of his involvement in land-grabbing cases, Azam Khan’s name would be recommended to be listed on the land mafia portal.

“The District Magistrate and I would be reviewing reports (FIRs/cases) of various police stations in the district relating to land-grabbing by Azam Khan or his aides. Subsequently, his name would be recommended to be listed in the land mafia portal of the government,” said the district police chief.

Earlier on Friday, a case was registered against Azam Khan on the basis of an FIR filed by the Revenue department at Azim Nagar police station in Rampur. The FIR alleges that Azam Khan and his close aide, a former DySP called Aale Hasan Khan, allegedly “grabbed land” of 26 farmers and utilised it in the construction of Mohammed Ali Jauhar University, a mega multi-crore project of the SP leader. 

Police also lodged FIR against Aale Hasan, his wife and son Wasim. Wasim was arrested and sent to jail on Sunday.   

The farmers whose land were grabbed by Azam Khan for the university have also lodged separate FIRs against him and Ale Hasan, who is security officer of Jauhar University.

The complaint of the State Revenue department also says that Azam Khan, who misused his position (as Cabinet minister of Uttar Pradesh, 2012-2017) for grabbing the land of poor farmers, and illegally occupied another huge chunk of land measuring 50 hectares.

“This land comes under the riverside (of Kosi river) and cannot be acquired. However, Revenue records were forged and subsequently, this land, worth over several hundred crore rupees, was illegally occupied by Jauhar Ali University,” said a Revenue officer.

According to this officer, the forged documents aimed at fraudulently enabling occupation of the riverbed, now seem to provide strong evidence against Azam Khan, who appears to be in deep waters. Police sources said that several complaints relating to other cases of land-grabbing by Azam Khan or his aides have been received at the office of the Superintendent of Police, Rampur.

Meanwhile, the Samajwadi Party spokesman Rajendra Chaudhary said here on Sunday that their leader had been the sole voice of opposition across the state and particularly in Rampur district and had been talking tough against the Narendra Modi government in Parliament. 

“The action against him (Azam Khan) is not justified. He did not grab any land for his personal use,” the SP leader said.