Azam Khan, a top Samajwadi Party leader, is suspected of evading taxes by more than 800 crore after the Income Tax authorities conducted three days of searches on him and those connected to him, according to official sources on Friday.
Tax investigators searched Khan’s home on Jail Road in Rampur, Uttar Pradesh, after arriving there at 7 am on Wednesday.
Around 7 o’clock on Friday night, when the officials had left his home, Mr. Khan emerged and announced that the IT department had been raided. They spent three days here. They looked about and questioned people. Mr. Khan declined to respond to more inquiries.
As part of an investigation into Mr. Khan’s possible tax fraud, the Income Tax agency conducted raids at more than 30 locations in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh on September 13.
According to official sources, the department has raided certain locations in nearby Madhya Pradesh as well as Rampur, Saharanpur, Lucknow, Ghaziabad, and Meerut in Uttar Pradesh.
The Income Tax agency conducted a search of a home in Ghaziabad’s Rajnagar Colony on Wednesday. Ekta Kaushik, who is rumoured to be close to Azam Khan’s family, is the owner of the home.
According to the sources, the I-T investigation is connected to a few trusts managed by Khan and his relatives.
The Public Works Department, the district panchayat office, and Mr. Khan’s Muhammad Ali Jauhar University were also included in the investigation’s expanded scope, according to the officials.
They claimed that the government expenditure records are being examined because the politician was accused of evading taxes by more than 800 crore.
The Samajwadi Party responded angrily to the raids, promising to back Khan and accusing the BJP administration of “dictatorship” and “misusing central agencies.”
“The voice of truth is that of Azam Khan saheb. He created a university for education and provided the groundwork for children’s brighter futures, the party claimed in a post on X in Hindi after the Wednesday raids.
“Khan has always fought against communal forces. We all stand united with his voice,” it said.
In response to claims that government agencies were being misused, BJP leader and deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya stated that the central agencies had every right to take action to ensure “Bharat corruption-free.”
Khan was found guilty of using hate speech last year after making a comment during a gathering of the public in the village of Khatanagaria in the Milak Kotwali region in 2019.
After receiving a three-year prison sentence, he lost his right to represent Rampur as an MLA. He was later exonerated by a higher court, but his exclusion was kept in place due to his conviction in a different case.
