Madrassa teacher on govt payroll, preacher in UK: Terror lens on UP maulana; ATS probes Pakistan trips, radicalisation drive

Uttar Pradesh govt finally started a crackdown on Nov 22. Four senior minority welfare officials—Joint Director SN Pandey, Ghaziabad DMO Sahitya Nikash Singh, Bareilly's Lalman, and Amethi's Prabhat Kumar—were suspended after being found complicit in facilitating Huda's illegal salary, unauthorized leave approvals, and retirement benefits on Saturday.

The move marks the beginning of what the officials term "one of the most extraordinary cases of administrative collusion, foreign-funded religious operations, and long-term radicalisation attempts" that have been unearthed in eastern Uttar Pradesh.

"It's one of the most shocking cases of systemic breakdown," said a senior official. "This wasn't an accidental oversight. This was an active collaboration."

An FIR was lodged under section 318(4) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita for cheating and under relevant provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999, against Shamsul Huda Khan.

A Special Investigation Team is investigating his foreign travel history, NGO registration documents, bank and donation trails, and departmental approval files, besides communication between Huda and local officials. Sant Kabir Nagar's police officials have also written to ED for a probe.

Huda faces two more FIRs -- one in Azamgarh for cheating and forgery, another in Sant Kabir Nagar for concealing British citizenship and waging war against India.

The story begins in 1984, when Huda was appointed assistant teacher at a madrassa in Azamgarh. He continued teaching until 2007 - the year he quietly left for the UK. By 2013, he had acquired British citizenship.

But between 2007 and 2017, his salary continued to be deposited uninterruptedly in his account while he lived in the West. Medical leaves were sanctioned, GPF papers processed, service records updated, and finally in 2017 VRS was approved—consolidating his retirement benefits despite his absolute absence from duty.

According to investigators, the chain of approvals involves "deliberate negligence," "active manipulation of files," and "a decade-long conspiracy enabled by officials managing madrassa education in eastern UP." The financial loss to the state—around ₹16 lakh in salary alone—is only part of the story. What Huda was allegedly doing abroad is now a much bigger question.

Investigators say that he tried to "indirectly build ideological influence" in parts of eastern Uttar Pradesh by funding and managing religious institutions upon returning in 2017.

The ATS cited electronic religious lectures aimed at Indian audiences; unregulated foreign inflows into local madrassas and NGOs; efforts to disguise the source of donations; and use of religious platforms to promote "sect-based ideological expansion". This triggered further scrutiny — not just of Huda, but of the entire administrative chain that enabled him.

Huda shifted to India in 2017, set up Madrassa Kulliyatul Banatir Rajviya (Niswa) in Khalilabad, and founded two NGOs: Kulliyatul Banatir Rajviya Educational & Welfare Society and Raza Foundation.

The institutions functioned like an expanding ecosystem-foreign donations came in through several bank accounts, a girls' hostel functioned out of a rented house, students came in from Sant Kabir Nagar, Basti, Azamgarh, and other states-religious coursework packaged as welfare education.

But what bothered investigators was how quickly those buildings proliferated, and that donations often came from abroad. In early 2024, the government shut down his girls' madrassa over financial misdealing. Huda promptly opened another bearing the same name on an adjacent compound.

A second madrassa was sealed on November 3. Officials suspect that the campuses were "operational nodes" for both foreign fund inflow and influence-building activities. The ATS tracked the inflows going back several years, finding multiple small foreign contributions masked through NGO accounts and money rerouted from overseas donors to various religious institutions across eastern UP, a portion allegedly diverted as personal commission or unaccounted transactions. Institutions that received this money included Darul Uloom Ahle Sunnat Ashrafia Misbahul Uloom, Huda's old institution in Mubarakpur — now under scrutiny for its role in legitimising financial paperwork despite his long absence. Officials say the "money trail is only partially decoded," and the Enforcement Directorate may step in soon.