Undercover sting ‘unmasks fake’ madarsas in UP

The Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government has stepped up the heat against fake madarsas (Islamic seminaries) in the state.

Physical verification of such institutions registered online with the government reveals that either schools or other businesses are being run from the premises of 17 allegedly illegal seminaries in Saharanpur alone. 

Saharanpur has 750 madarsas, but a lot of them have allegedly stayed away from registering online. 

District officials told India Today TV that several of these received government funds and an investigation was on to identify those suspected of siphoning of the welfare grants fraudulently. 

Saharanpur district magistrate PK Pandey confirmed this and said that no madarsa exists at 17 surveyed sites. 

He said schools were being run from some properties registered as madarsas. 

India Today TV has exclusive access to the list of these apparently ‘fake’ madarsas. 

‘We will register first information reports (FIR) against those found guilty. The investigation into such fake madarsas is still underway. A recovery process will also be initiated against those who have received any sort of financial aid from the government fraudulently,’ Pandey said. 

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath – his government has promised action

Officials say several madarsas avoided registering online to escape scrutiny which in turn raised suspicions about their credibility. 

The investigation process is not just restricted to Saharanpur. Muzaffarnagar’s administration has also initiated the same process to identify fake madarsas. 

The Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party government had issued orders in October 2016 for the physical verification of madarsas that are registered with the government and avail financial benefits and the investigation by Saharanpur district officials is a part of that process. 

India Today TV carried out its own independent investigation to verify the truth. 

The correspondent tried to trace Madarsa Muzaffar Islamic Academy in Baliyakhedi village of Saharanpur, but no such madarsa appeared to exist on the ground. 

But Sarfaraz, who said that he used to run the said madarsa until a couple of years ago, claimed to have shifted it to another village. He said he also registered online following the Yogi government’s orders. 

In Sheikhpura village, India Today’s sting also found a building with a board outside that had ‘Jamia Mairazul Uloom’ written on it. This particular address allegedly figures on the list of 17 non-existent madarsas drawn up by the Saharanpur administration. 

Shaheen, the proprietor of  Jamia Mairazul Uloom, claimed that she ran a madarsa at the site and that it was registered on the state government’s website. However, her brother, Shamsuddin, had allegedly early conceded that a private school was operational from the building. 

On the other end of the city, we found that Madarsa Islamic Mahmoodiya Arbi Farsi also existed just on paper. However, the owner of the property where the madarsa was located said that a private school was being run from the premises for the past seven months. 

The owner of Madarsa Sar Deedar Arbi Farsi in Khata Khedi, Shariffuddin, gave us an insight into how the fake madarsa business was mushrooming in the area. 

Shariffuddin claimed a man approached him saying that he could make some money by calling his school a madarsa. He said the man also took some money from him to arrange this before disappearing.