ED summons SP leader Azam Khan's wife, son for questioning in PMLA case

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned the wife and son of Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan for questioning in a money laundering case being probed against him, officials said.

Khan, 73, is also a SP MLA from Rampur seat.

His son Abdullah Azam Khan, MLA from the Swar assembly seat in the Uttar Pradesh assembly, and wife Tazeen Fatma have been asked to depose separately before the ED's regional office in Lucknow this week.

The agency wants to record their statements under criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in the case being probed against Azam Khan, they said.

Azam Khan has been grilled by the agency in the case when he was lodged in Sitapur jail. He is out on bail at present.

He was released from jail in May after 27 months following the Supreme Court granting him interim bail in an alleged forgery case.

The agency has initiated 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 is the chairman of the Maulana Muhammad Ali Jauhar Trust which runs the three branches of the Rampur Public School.

He has earlier served as the urban development minister in the SP government headed by chief minister Akhilesh Yadav in Uttar Pradesh.