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Synopsis

The Allahabad High Court last week dismissed a batch of petitions filed by the office-bearers of Rampur's Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar Trust, for quashing of criminal proceedings in cases lodged for alleged land grabbing to expand the premises of the University.

Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan, the chancellor of the varsity, has been booked and charge-sheeted in 27 cases pertaining to the allegation of forcible land grabbing for the University.

The bench of Justice Samit Gopal observed, "The allegations in the FIRs reveal as to how the respective first informants were abducted, assaulted, threatened and their land was forcibly taken from them by coercion and not following the due process of law."

"Looking at the facts of the case, the prima facie allegation against the applicants and the law well settled as stated above, no case for interference is made out," the Court therefore held. 

Initially, an FIR was lodged on July 13, 2019, by a resident of village Seegankhera Majra Aliaganj alleging that at the time of construction of Mohammad Ali Jauhar University former minister Azam Khan and former C.O. (City) Aley Hasan Khan pressurized him to give his land to them.

Thereafter, another FIR was registered on September 12, 2019 by a revenue officer which was followed by 25 other complaints filed by local farmers alleging that they were threatened and illegally detained and their land was taken away forcibly by Azam Khan and Aley Hasan Khan for Jauhar University.

The farmers had also alleged that former minister Azam Khan and the then Circle Officer (City), Rampur Aley Hasan Khan had threatened to implicate them in fake cases if they refused to give their land to the varsity for its expansion.

Court noted that "it is trite law that at the stage of quashing only the material of the prosecution has to be seen and the court cannot delve into the defence of the accused and then proceed to examine the matter on its merit by weighing the evidence so produced".

Further, stressing that at this stage only the prima facie prosecution case has to be looked into as it is and the evidence needs to be led to substantiate the defence of the accused persons who can raise their grievances while claiming discharge at the appropriate stage before the trial court, the court dismissed the petitions. 

Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar University was established in the year 2012. The pleas had been filed by the office-bearers of the University Trust/accused persons alleging that in many of the said cases the FIRs had been lodged with an inordinate delay and the allegations in many of the cases had sameness and were of the same incident, thus the lodging of the many of the FIRs was not even permissible in law.

Case Title: Zaki Ur Rahman Siddiqui v. State of U.P. & Anr.