Ghaziabad: Senior Samajwadi Party leader and former Uttar Pradesh minister Azam Khan was sent to 14 days of judicial custody by a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act court in Ghaziabad on Sunday, barely a day after he had walked out of prison following nearly 11 months behind bars.
Khan will remain lodged at Dasna District Jail in Ghaziabad until November 13, when he is due to be produced before the court again. The remand order, passed by Special Judge Avanish Kumar Pandey of the Anti-Corruption CBI Court in Ghaziabad, came after a hearing that lasted about 90 minutes, with the Enforcement Directorate producing Khan before the court at around 10.30 am amid tight security arrangements.
The sequence of events over the weekend was dramatic. Khan and his son, Abdullah Azam, had walked out of Rampur District Jail at around 7.15 pm on Saturday after spending nearly 11 months in custody. Their release became possible after the Allahabad High Court, on October 29, suspended their sentences in the dual PAN card case and granted them bail. Khan had been sentenced to 10 years in the two PAN card cases.
But his freedom proved short-lived. An Enforcement Directorate team, accompanied by Central Reserve Police Force personnel and Uttar Pradesh Police, was waiting outside the jail. The agency arrested Khan on Saturday evening in a separate money laundering investigation linked to Mohammad Ali Jauhar University in Rampur, an institution he founded and of which he is the chancellor. Abdullah Azam was allowed to leave the prison premises.
Khan was then taken to the Enforcement Directorate headquarters in Delhi for questioning before being produced in the Ghaziabad court on Sunday. In a statement, the agency confirmed the arrest.
The Directorate of Enforcement, Lucknow Zonal Office, said it had arrested Mohammad Azam Khan, founder of the Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar Trust and chancellor of Mohammad Ali Jauhar University, Rampur, on October 31, 2026, under the provisions of the PMLA, 2002, in the money laundering case, and that he had been sent to judicial custody for 14 days by the special PMLA court in Ghaziabad.
The money laundering case has its roots in a series of criminal cases registered in 2019. According to the Enforcement Directorate, its investigation began with 26 first information reports registered against Khan and others at Rampur's Azeem Nagar police station in July 2019, under sections of the then Indian Penal Code relating to offences including criminal intimidation, wrongful confinement, extortion and criminal trespass.
Following those cases, the agency lodged its Enforcement Case Information Report, numbered ECIR/07/LKZO/2019, on August 1, 2019, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
The agency's case concerns alleged financial irregularities in connection with Mohammad Ali Jauhar University. Officials quoted in news reports said Khan was questioned about the alleged misuse of government funds in the construction of the university. Just days before the arrest, on Wednesday, the Enforcement Directorate had attached the land and buildings of the university under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, a move that set the stage for the weekend's action.
Khan's arrest immediately triggered a political storm. The Samajwadi Party criticised the government, with party national general secretary Shivpal Singh Yadav alleging that the Enforcement Directorate acted at the government's behest to arrest Khan immediately after his release from jail. Khan himself, speaking after his arrest, framed the action in stark terms, saying it was punishment for being a Muslim and that the mistake was that a Muslim built a university.
The case also highlights the long-running legal troubles of one of Uttar Pradesh's most prominent Muslim political leaders. Azam Khan, a founding figure of the Samajwadi Party and a multiple-term MLA from Rampur, has faced a string of cases since 2019, ranging from land and criminal matters to the PAN card case that kept him in jail for most of the past year.
His supporters argue that the cases are politically motivated, while the agencies insist they are following the evidence.
For the Samajwadi Party, the timing is politically sensitive. The party is preparing for crucial electoral battles in Uttar Pradesh, and Khan remains an influential voice in Rampur and western Uttar Pradesh. His return to custody within hours of his release denies the party a high-profile campaigner at a moment when it had hoped his homecoming would energise its base.
Legally, the next steps will unfold in the Ghaziabad court. Khan's custody runs until November 13, and his lawyers are expected to challenge the remand and seek bail in the money laundering case, just as they secured relief in the PAN card matter. The Enforcement Directorate, meanwhile, is expected to continue its investigation into the university's finances, including the attached properties and the trail of funds it alleges were laundered.
The episode also raises broader questions about the use of central agencies and the timing of arrests. Opposition parties have repeatedly accused the government of deploying the Enforcement Directorate against political rivals, particularly around elections. The government and the agencies reject that charge, maintaining that investigations follow due process and court supervision.
Khan's case, with an arrest executed within minutes of a court-ordered release, is likely to feature prominently in that debate.
For now, the veteran leader is back behind bars, this time in Dasna Jail in Ghaziabad rather than in Rampur, where he spent the last 11 months. His son, Abdullah Azam, remains free, and the family and party are weighing their legal options as the November 13 hearing approaches.
Beyond the courtroom, the case has deep roots in Rampur, where Azam Khan has been a dominant political figure for decades. He founded Mohammad Ali Jauhar University as an ambitious educational project for the region, and he has served as a minister in Uttar Pradesh governments led by the Samajwadi Party.
His supporters view the university as his legacy and the cases against him as an attempt to dismantle it, while investigators maintain that the university's finances require scrutiny. That clash of narratives has made every development in the case a political event in itself, followed closely not only in Rampur but across Uttar Pradesh, where the Samajwadi Party is seeking to rebuild its base ahead of future elections.
(Reporting based on The Times of India, Republic World and The Wire.)