Al-Falah varsity founder also accused of cheating Bhopal gas victims 24 years ago

Bhopal/New Delhi: In a dramatic development spanning two states, the probe into alleged fraud and irregularities linked to Faridabad-based Al-Falah University, the varsity central to the Delhi car blast case, has taken a sensational turn.

While the ED has arrested university founder-chairman Jawad Ahmad Siddiqui in connection with a 24-year-old chit fund scam in Bhopal, his younger brother Hamud (Hamood) Ahmad Siddiqui, who had been on the run for nearly 25 years, was arrested by Madhya Pradesh Police in Hyderabad in connection with multiple investment fraud cases registered in Mhow in 2000.

Fifty-year-old Hamud, wanted in at least four cases, including a 1988 case related to rioting and attempted murder, was arrested on Sunday in Hyderabad’s Gachibowli area and brought to Mhow on Monday.

Siddiqui and his brother Hamood Siddiqui allegedly defrauded the public of over Rs 2 crore in the Bhopal chit fund scam.

The fraud, perpetrated between 1997 and 2001, involved a bogus chit fund company that promised investors to double their money within months. Hundreds of people, including many Bhopal gas tragedy victims and members of the Muslim community, handed over their life savings after being lured by high returns.

By 2001, both brothers had absconded, leaving investors ruined.

Sources close to the investigation claim part of the money collected in the Bhopal scam — much of it from gas victims and poor Muslim families — is suspected to have been diverted towards radical and terrorist activities in later years, though this angle is still being probed.

The arrest comes weeks after Delhi Police exposed an ISIS terror module in which two MBBS doctor brothers, who were planning suicide attacks in the national capital, were found to have been sheltered and supported by Al Falah University authorities.

The university in Faridabad has been under the scanner for allegedly providing a safe haven to individuals with terror links. Multiple fraud FIRs continue to be registered against Jawad Siddiqui across the country, with fresh complaints surfacing even in recent years.

The ED is now investigating money laundering angles in both the old chit fund scam and possible terror funding trails.

A senior Bhopal police officer who was part of the original 1999-2001 investigation said, “For 24 years, he evaded arrest while living openly and running a university. Many victims died waiting for justice. Now at least the process has restarted.”

The case has reignited anger among 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy survivors who say they were specifically targeted in the scam when they were most vulnerable.

As the ED tightens its noose, the rise of Jawad Siddiqui from a chit fund fraudster who vanished with crores to a university owner accused of harbouring terrorists has become one of the most stunning stories of crime, evasion and alleged jihad funding in recent times.

IANS