Samajwadi Party MP Azam Khan, gangster Ansari and strongman Ahmad on the list
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) will begin the questioning of Samajwadi Party MP Azam Khan, gangster Mukhtar Ansari and strongman Ateeq Ahmad in connection with separate money laundering cases against them and their associates. All the three accused hail from Uttar Pradesh and are undergoing judicial custody in separate criminal cases.
The ED is initiating the action after obtaining permission from relevant special courts having jurisdiction in cases under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), sources said.
“Khan, 72, lodged in the Sitapur district jail of Uttar Pradesh, will be questioned and his statement will be recorded between September 20 and 24,” an official said.
Likewise, Ansari, 58, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) legislator from the Mau seat, will be questioned at the Banda district jail in the State under the PMLA after a court in August allowed the ED to record his statement.
Following an order authorising the ED to question the 59-year-old Ahmad, who is lodged in the Sabarmati Jail of Gujarat in judicial custody, the agency will record his statement separately.
The agency has filed separate PMLA cases against them and after their questioning the ED is likely to attach their assets under the criminal provisions of PMLA.
The ED had initiated PMLA probe against Khan in 2019 after taking cognisance of at least 26 FIRs filed by the State police against him including allegations that a university run by him in Rampur district of Uttar Pradesh has been raised over a land that has been grabbed from a ‘enemy property’.
Khan was the urban development Minister in the SP Government under Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.
The ED is probing Ansari in connection with at least 49 criminal cases booked against him including those on charges of land grabbing, murder and extortion. Ahmad, a former MP, was previously associated with political parties including the Samajwadi Party and the Apna Dal (Sonewal faction). His role in money laundering is being probed by the ED on the basis of 196 FIRs lodged against him by various police stations in Uttar Pradesh on charges of murder, extortion and land grabbing.
