Shivpal Yadav Visits Azam Khan in Dasna Jail, Alleges State Harassment Over Rampur University

Samajwadi Party National General Secretary Shivpal Yadav met incarcerated party colleague Azam Khan at Dasna jail on Thursday, alleging prison administrators are systematically harassing the former Uttar Pradesh cabinet minister behind bars.

Speaking across an iron mesh partition inside the high-security facility, Yadav mounted a fierce defense of the embattled Rampur strongman. He dismissed the sprawling web of state and federal criminal charges against Khan as political vendetta.

"Azam Khan is being harassed in jail," Yadav told reporters outside the complex gates. "Now, we have hope only from the judiciary. The court will provide him relief. The administration is continuously harassing him."

The friction points run deep.

Prison Confrontation and Allegations of Communal Bias

Yadav linked the persistent legal actions against Khan directly to his religious identity and his signature educational initiative in Rampur. Khan, he asserted, faces relentless official retribution for establishing the Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar University, an institution built to educate underprivileged children.

Yet the administrative grip has not loosened. Khan secured bail on October 31 in a criminal proceeding involving the alleged possession of two distinct PAN cards. That freedom vanished instantly. The Enforcement Directorate took him straight into custody at the prison gates in connection with an expanding money laundering probe.

Federal Charges and Jauhar University Probe

The central agency's money laundering investigation pivots entirely on the Rampur campus. Federal investigators allege Khan misused state government contracts and siphoned public funds to erect the private university during his tenure as a senior minister in Uttar Pradesh.

Khan's defense team maintains every transaction complied with statutory allocations. But state and central agencies have filed a succession of cases spanning land acquisition, fiscal impropriety, and administrative overreach.