The Uttar Pradesh government on Tuesday approved a proposal to take back more than 41,000 square feet of land given to Maulana Mohd Ali Jauhar Trust run by the Samajwadi Party (SP) leader and former 10-time MLA Azam Khan.
The previous SP government allocated about 41,181 sq feet of land to the trust through two government orders in September 2006 and February 2007. The land belonging to the State Education Department was given on a 30-year lease to the trust at an annual rent of ₹ 100.
Opposition parties questioned the U.P. government’s decision alleging the decision not only targeted Mr. Khan but also Muslims in general and children.
“In a meeting of the Uttar Pradesh Cabinet today, the proposal to take back land from Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar Trust of Rampur was approved. Now children of minorities and the entire Muslim society are becoming victims of the conspiracy to target Azam Khan and eliminate him politically. Attacks on education should stop,” wrote Kunwar Danish Ali, a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) Lok Sabha member on X.
Mr. Khan, who is considered the SP’s Muslim face has been facing government’s action with more than five dozen cases lodged since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in U.P. Over the last year he has being convicted in four cases. He was acquitted in one of these cases in May, 2023. His conviction in October last year in the same case in which he was later acquitted led to Mr. Khan losing his assembly membership. This caused a by-election, which was won by the BJP’s Akash Saxena.
