Income Tax Department Raids SP Leader Azam Khan's Premises In Multiple Cities Amid Tax Evasion Probe

The income tax department conducted raids on Wednesday (13 September) morning at various premises associated with Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan.

The raids are currently taking place in Lucknow, Rampur, Meerut, Ghaziabad, Saharanpur, and Sitapur.

These raids are believed to be related to the Al Jauhar Trust, and income tax officials searched around 30 premises in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh as part of a tax evasion investigation against Azam Khan.

Azam Khan, a former Cabinet minister, serves as the head of the Al Jauhar Trust. Earlier this year, the Uttar Pradesh government revoked a lease for a 3.24-acre plot in Rampur that was granted to the Trust for the purpose of establishing a research institute.

The lease, which was signed in 2013-14 for a nominal fee of Rs 100 per year for over 30 years, was cancelled due to allegations of irregularities. Despite the lease, the research institute was never constructed.

In July, Azam Khan was sentenced to two years in prison for a hate speech case that was filed before the 2019 Lok Sabha election. Currently, he is out on bail. He has been convicted in three separate cases thus far.