New Delhi: Trouble for senior Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan seems to increase further as the Uttar Pradesh government is reportedly mulling to take over the control of the jailed MLA's dream project Mohammad Ali Jauhar University. According to reports, the Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government is likely to appoint an administrator of the university.

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Azam is currently in jail along with his wife Tanzeen Fatima and son Abdullah in a fake birth certificate case.

A court had sent them to judicial custody till March 2 in a fake birth certificate case after they surrendered before it on February 26. The case relates to two birth certificates for Abdullah Azam, who allegedly gave a wrong date of birth while filing his nomination papers for the assembly elections in 2017.

Abdullah's election was set aside by the Allahabad High Court last December, and on March 5, the UP Legislative Assembly also disqualified him as a member and declared his seat Suar in Rampur as vacant.

A Rampur BJP leader Akash Saxena had lodged an FIR at Gang police station on January 3, 2019 alleging fraud related to Abdullah Azam's two birth certificates. In April, police filed the charge sheet in court. It alleged that Azam Khan's son also had two passports and two PAN cards. In one birth certificate, issued by the Rampur municipality, Abdullah's birth date was mentioned as January 1, 1993. The other certificate said he was born in Lucknow on September 30, 1990, according to the charge against him.

A case was also registered against Azam Khan and his wife as they had submitted an affidavit testifying their son's second birth certificate. 

Azam Khan represents Rampur in the Lok Sabha and his wife is an MLA from the Rampur assembly seat. Their son Abdullah won from the Suar assembly segment in 2017.

In recent years, Azam Khan has also faced charges of encroachment of land around Rampur's Mohammad Ali Jauhar University, where he is the chancellor.

On February 26, the Allahabad High Court had stayed the demolition of the boundary wall of the Mohammad Ali Jauhar University in Uttar Pradesh`s Rampur till March 31. The court was of the view that as the matter relates to an educational institution, therefore, some relief must be given till the filing of revision and subsequent decision on the petition filed before the SDM concerned.

Last week, the Rampur district administration had demolished a portion of the boundary wall of the Jauhar University, which was allegedly raised illegally on government land, to provide a passage to the farmers to their land on the university campus.

Meanwhile, in a related development, a local court in Rampur has ordered attachment of the properties of Azam Khan, his wife Tanzeen Fatima and son Abdullah Azam after non-bailable warrants were issued against them as they had not appeared in the court.

On February 23, the district administration of Rampur seized 104-bigha land inside the Mohammad Ali Jauhar University campus on the directions of revenue board court in Prayagraj. The revenue board court had found that rules were flouted in the purchase of plots of land from a group of Dalit farmers.

The administration also sealed a semi-constructed building inside the varsity campus over non-payment of taxes. One of the buildings of Mohammad Ali Jauhar University was seized after the Jauhar Trust failed to deposit a cess of Rs 1.37 crore for the construction of the varsity.

Under the Building And Other Construction Workers Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service Act 1996, all buildings, above the cost of Rs 10 lakh, constructed in the state have to pay a cess of 1 per cent to the board that spends it on welfare measures for workers.

The university was established in 2006. Spread in over 500 acres, it is run by Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar Trust.