Red Fort blast case: ED conducts raids on 25 premises linked to Al-Falah University, including in Delhi

The Enforcement Directorate action came days after Home Minister Amit Shah ordered a forensic audit of records of Al-Falah University as well as an investigation by the ED and other financial investigating agencies

Bringing more heat on Al-Falah University that is facing scrutiny following the involvement of some of its faculty members in suspected terror activities, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday conducted searches on the premises linked to the trustees and promoters of the university across the national capital and its satellite towns.

Officials said around 25 premises of the Al-Falah Trust and university, including those of key personnel overseeing its finance and administration, were the target of the ED action that started at about 5.15 am. The premises searched include the trust's office in Delhi's Okhla.

Fifteen people were killed in a suicide car blast on November 10 near the iconic Red Fort in which an Al-Falah faculty member Umar N Nabi was allegedly involved. Investigators have claimed that a couple of the university's faculty members were linked to the alleged "white collar terror module" linked to Jammu and Kashmir.

The university located at Dhauj village in Haryana's Faridabad district, which is around 30 km from the Delhi border, is a private institute, which also has a medical college on its campus. The ED action came days after Home Minister Amit Shah ordered a forensic audit of records of Al-Falah University as well as an investigation by the ED and other financial investigating agencies. 

Officials said the searches were part of an investigation into alleged financial irregularities, use of shell companies, accommodation entities and money laundering by the Al-Falah Trust and its related entities.

ED officials are examining details of at least nine shell companies registered at a single address and linked to the group. Investigators claim that these companies exhibit shell-company like peculiarities, including no physical presence, no meaningful activities at declared places of business and common mobile number and email address across various companies and accounts.

The EPFO/ESIC filings of the trust and other entities are inconsistent with reported scale of operations and overlapping of directors/signatories and weak KYC trails across entities, the officials claimed.

Instances of minimal salary disbursal through banking channels, absence of HR records, synchronised incorporation patterns and common contact coordinates across firms have been detected, they claimed.

In the last one week, it also came to light that the university had made false claims regarding UGC and National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), prompting the latter to issue a notice for misrepresentation.

Al-Falah University was established by the Haryana Legislative Assembly under the Haryana Private Universities Act and the Al-Falah Medical College is also affiliated to the university.

In a statement last Wednesday, the university said it had no connection with the arrested doctors apart from their professional assignment and debunked allegations on social media that the campus was used to store explosives.

Vice Chancellor Bhupinder Kaur Anand said the university is "extending its full cooperation" to the investigating authorities to enable them to arrive at a "logical, fair and conclusive determination" in the matter pertaining to national security.