ED raids Al Falah University, linked persons in Delhi Red Fort blast case

The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday conducted simultaneous searches in Delhi-NCR against the trustees and promoters of Al Falah University of Faridabad, the varsity central to the Red Fort area car blast case, officials said.

Multiple teams of the federal probe agency raided at least 25 premises of the Al Falah trust and University establishment since 5:15 am, they said.

Teams of the agency raided an office location in Delhi's Okhla area with a security cordon being provided by the police and paramilitary forces.

Fifteen persons have been killed in the blast that took place on November 10 near the iconic monument in Delhi, and the role of a number of doctors linked to the University and in Kashmir is under the scanner of the anti-terror probe agencies.

"The operation forms part of an ongoing investigation into financial irregularities, use of shell companies, accommodation entities and money laundering. The role of Al-Falah Trust and related entities is under investigation," an ED official said.

The official said "key" personnel overseeing finance and administration of the trust and the University have also been covered in the raids.

The agency has taken cognisance of the first information reports filed by the NIA and the Delhi Police in the case. Till now, the NIA has arrested two persons, stated to be the alleged close aides of "suicide bomber" Dr Umar Nabi.

At least nine shell (dummy) companies linked to the group, all registered at a single address, are under the examination of the ED, according to the officials.

Preliminary findings point to multiple "risk" indicators consistent with shell-company behaviour like no physical presence or meaningful utility consumption at declared places of business and common mobile number and email across various companies and accounts.

The ED investigators have also found absence of EPFO/ESIC filings inconsistent with reported scale of operations and overlapping of directors/signatories and weak KYC trails across entities.

Instances of minimal salary disbursal through banking channels and absence of HR (human resource) records, apart from synchronised incorporation patterns and common contact coordinates across firms, have been detected at the varsity, the officials said.

In addition, prima facie discrepancies have been noted in claims regarding UGC and NAAC recognition, which indicate alleged non-compliance to norms established for educational institutions, the officials said.

The Al Falah varsity is located in the Dhouj area of Haryana's Faridabad district, and it is a medical college-cum-hospital.