With two of the ministers in Akhilesh Yadav’s cabinet already facing a probe by lokayukta Justice (retd) NK Mehrotra, yet another senior minister and close lieutenant of Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, might face similar fate as a complaint against him has been lodged by social activist, Nutan Thakur here on Monday. The
complaint has been made against cabinet minister Azam Khan in connection with Jauhar Trust land case lodging a formal complaint before N K Mehrotra against Minorities welfare minister Azam Khan, here on Monday, Nutan Thakur alleged that allotment of government land and building of Maulana Jauhar Ali Shodh Sansthan at Rampur to his private Maulana Jauhar Ali Trust, is a blatant disregard to the rules and regulations, without following the mandatory transparent process.
She alleged in her report that Azam Khan had pressurized the government authorities to grant 1500 sq yard government land and building built at the cost of Rs. 9.83 crores to his private trust for 30 years lease for a nominal annual rent of just Rs100, while completely ignoring the law formulated by the Supreme Court in identical matters of land allotment to Sourav Ganguli, Subhash Ghai and Kushabhai Thakare memorial Trust.
Dr Thakur said that the then Principal Secretary, Dr Devesh Chaturvedi had strongly opposed this move calling it a case of direct conflict of interest after which he was removed from the post and the government machinery was forced to get this illegal order passed. She has sought quashing of the above allotment order after enquiry, along with appropriate action against those found guilty. It may be mentioned that cabinet minister for mining, Gyatri Prajapati and secondary education minister, Mehmoob Ali, were already facing corruption charges and a probe against them has been made by lokayukta.