Yogi Adityanath recommends CBI probe into Shia and Sunni waqf boards in Uttar Pradesh

Lucknow: Hours after the Uttar Pradesh government ordered dissolution of Shia and Sunni waqf boards, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday night recommended a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the alleged irregularities worth multiple crores committed by the two bodies in the state. “The chief minister recommended a CBI probe into the alleged scam worth crores in Shia and Sunni waqf boards,” Minister of State for Waqf Mohsin Raza told PTI in Lucknow. Raza said scam worth crores has come to the fore in a probe by the Waqf Council of India. The chief minister had earlier given orders to dissolve both the state Shia and Sunni waqf boards. The process to dissolve the two boards has been started after taking into account all legal aspects, Adityanath said. There have been allegations of corruption against the Shia and Sunni waqf boards related to their properties. [caption id=“attachment_3486301” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath. PTI[/caption] The role of the chairman of the Shia Waqf Board, Wasim Rizvi, as well as the minister for waqf in the previous Samajwadi Party (SP) government, Azam Khan, had come under the scanner after an inquiry by the Waqf Council of India. Barely a fortnight after the SP suffered a humiliating defeat in the state Assembly polls, a report by the fact-finding committee of the Central Waqf Council (CWC) indicted Khan — one of the controversial ministers in the erstwhile Akhilesh Yadav government — of corruption, mismanagement and misuse of office. The fact-finding committee, constituted after the CWC received several complaints from the state, was headed by Syed Ejaz Abbas Naqvi, who is also the in-charge of Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand waqf boards. Raza had recently handed over separate reports of the Waqf Council with regard to the two boards to the chief minister. The committee in its report elaborated on how Khan as minister allegedly misused his position to grab properties under the boards. It said Khan made a trust — Maulana Johar Ali Education Trust — and diverted funds from waqf properties to it. The report pointed out discrepancies in maintaining rent collection records on Waqf properties. It recommended that the Uttar Pradesh Waqf Board be dissolved immediately and all accused officials be barred from entering waqf offices pending investigation. Khan has, however, maintained that he was absolutely clean and the allegations against him were baseless.