Lucknow: Senior Samajwadi Party member and former MP Azam Khan was remanded to 14 days judicial custody by a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Ghaziabad on Sunday. He will be lodged at Dasna district jail in Ghaziabad instead of Rampur jail, from where he had been released a day earlier.
The Enforcement Directorate produced Azam Khan before Special Judge Anti-Corruption CBI court, Avanish Kumar Pandey, around 10.30am amid tight security. A convoy of five ED vehicles brought him to the court premises, accompanied by more than 100 personnel from the CRPF and the Uttar Pradesh Police. The court gave the order after hearing the matter for about 90 minutes.
He responded, “Ab kya reh gaya hai bolne ko ” (What is left to say now?). Khan appeared calm when he arrived at the court. As he rolled down the window, journalists asked whether he wanted to say something. ED counsel Kuldeep Srivastava argued on behalf of the agency while ED’s deputy director Piyush Thorat and assistant director Praveen Kumar remained present inside the court. However, his release proved short-lived as the ED arrested him in the money laundering case.
Bihar BJP president Sanjay Saraogi said the case should not be linked to any particular community and accused Azam Khan of portraying himself as a victim. BJP members, on the other hand, defended the ED action, saying that the law was equal for everyone.
ED had arrested the SP veteran on Saturday evening in connection with a money laundering case registered by the agency in 2019. Azam and his son Abdullah Azam had walked out of Rampur jail around 7.15pm on Saturday after spending nearly 11 months in custody. His release came after the Allahabad high court on Oct 29 suspended his 10-year sentence in the two PAN card cases.
He was taken into custody after being released from Rampur jail and was taken to the ED headquarters in Delhi for questioning.