New Delhi/Lucknow: The Income Tax Department, on Wednesday, conducted raids at more than 30 premises in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh as part of a tax evasion probe against Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan and those linked to him, official sources said.
The searches are being conducted at properties in Rampur, Saharanpur, Lucknow, Ghaziabad and Meerut in Uttar Pradesh, and Vidisha in the neighbouring state of Madhya Pradesh, they said. The I-T probe is related to some trusts run by Khan and his family members, the sources said.
In Ghaziabad, the raid was conducted at the house of Ekta Kaushik, said to be close to Khan's family. In Rajnagar colony. Kaushik used to look after Jauhar Ali Trust which constructed the Jauhar University in Rampur in Uttar Pradesh, according to sources. They said the actual expenditure in the construction of Jauhar University was Rs 2,000 crore but the account books logged only Rs 100 crore.
They said Kaushik studied with Adeeb, the elder son of the former minister, and also looked after Azam Khan when he was admitted to Sir Gangaram Hospital in May 2022. The gates of Kaushik's house were closed during the raid and nobody was allowed to enter the premises. The IT team was accompanied by paramilitary force personnel.
The officers did not ask for help, Ghaziabad DCP (city zone) Nipun Agarwal said. As the raids unfolded, a report from Rampur said Azam Khan was in his house in the Jail Road locality there. The raids drew a sharp reaction from the Samajwadi Party which vowed support to Khan and accused the BJP government of "dictatorship" and "misusing central agencies".
"Azam Khan saheb is the voice of truth," the party said in a post on X in Hindi. "He laid the foundation for a better future for children and built a university for education." It said Khan has always fought against communal forces. "We all stand united with his voice."
SP chief Akhilesh Yadav also attacked the government, saying more such raids will be conducted against the Opposition as the government becomes "weaker". "Azam Khan is the voice of truth. He has laid the foundation for a better future for children and created a university. Today the entire Samajwadi Party stands with him," he said in a statement in Hindi.
He accused the BJP government of working with vengeance against opposition leaders. "Even earlier, the BJP had filed fake cases to tarnish Azam Khan's image. He got relief from the court," the SP chief said.
"The BJP government is scared of opposition unity and the INDIA bloc. The entire BJP is upset by its defeat in the Ghosi assembly by-election (results were announced on Friday). The government should stop its dictatorship and misuse of central agencies," he said.
Meanwhile, BJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya attacked the SP chief for "making a hue and cry" over the IT raids, saying central agencies are well within their rights to take action to make "Bharat corruption-free". An MP-MLA court here last year convicted Khan in a hate speech case registered over his remark made at a public meeting in Khatanagaria village of the Milak Kotwali area in 2019.
He was sentenced to three years of imprisonment, following which he was disqualified as an MLA from Rampur. Later, he was acquitted by a higher court, but his disqualification was not revoked on account of his conviction in a different case. (PTI)
