ED probe links two Al Falah officials to SIMI, JeI
Days after three doctors associated with the university were allegedly part of a terror module that carried out an explosion in the national capital, ED carried out searches of nearly two dozen facilities linked to Al Falah University, its board of trustees and related persons/institutions earlier this month. Following search operations, the federal agency arrested Jawad Ahmed Siddiqui, president and founder of Al Falah University. People cited above told ET that Jawad, during interrogation, confessed to ED that he was arrested by Delhi Police in January 2000 in connection with cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy in the garb of Portfolio Management Scheme and spent four years in jail.
The agency also interrogated the privileged account and Finance Manager of the Al Falah group to determine the money trail of the alleged proceeds of crime. The people mentioned above added that Jawad, who is currently in ED’s custody, has been confronted with evidence related to the alleged hawala transactions: “Various foreign assets of Jawad’s family members have been found in the UK and UAE. The same are being investigated,” a senior official told ET on condition of anonymity.
In a related development, ED claimed that its investigation had revealed that Jawad had fraudulently purchased land in Madanpur Khadar in South East Delhi by forging documents in the names of five deceased persons who had previously owned land. The official said that during the investigation in the Al Falah case, Khasra No. He said that it was found that the land covering 792 was acquired fraudulently by Jawad Ahmad Siddiqui’s Tarbia Education Trust.
The agency claimed to have detected a fraudulent General Power of Attorney (GPA) being created in the names of already deceased individuals. This fake GPA was later allegedly used to sell their land to Jawad Ahmad Siddiqui’s Tarbia Education Trust. “Investigations so far reveal that many landowners died between 1972 and 1998. Despite this, a GPA dated January 7, 2004 is signed by them,” another official told ET. This GPA is shown as applied in favor of Vinod Kumar. He added that it bears the names, signatures or fingerprints of deceased landowners.
ET reported last week that two properties in Sharjah were under the ED scanner, along with money received from foreign sources, including thousands of dollars from the UK, alleged undisclosed large investments, unsecured loans and “possible secret distribution” by the Al Falah group chairman.
