Education trust properties set for e-auction in Mysuru

Canara Bank has notified e-auction on Jan. 10 even as Rifahul Muslimeen Trust board members accuse Secretary of misappropriation of properties mortgaged to the Bank

MA Siraj

Mysuru: Discontent is palpable among Muslims of the city of Mysuru as properties belonging to a known educational body are set for e-auction by the Canara Bank.

Several community leaders and organisations have raised the issue during the last few months pertaining to the irregularities and mismanagement of properties belonging to the Rifahul Muslimeen Education Trust (RMET) which runs a cluster of institutions in the city.

The properties were mortgaged to the Canara Bank as security for a loan of Rs 8.95 crore in 2010-11. The account of the Trust turned NPA (Non Performing Asset) on March 31, 2012 due to nonpayment of the dues. Continued non-payment led to the total outstanding dues mounting to Rs 44 crore now.

The e-auction date is set for Tuesday ie, Jan 10, 2023. The notice issued by the specialised asset recovery management branch of the Canara Bank in Bengaluru dated December 16, 2022 has charged the Secretary and other trustees of trespassing, forgery, cheating, criminal intimidation and has requested appropriate action against them under the IPC in a petition to the Station House Officer of the Metagalli Police Station in the city.

The Trust which runs 14 schools and colleges had been founded by former MLA from Narasimharaja and several times minister Azeez Sait in 1961 and currently caters to around 4,000 students and employs around 400 teachers and non-teaching staff.

Following Sait’s demise in 2001, the baton passed on to his protégé Mr Taj Mohammed Khan who has been the Honorary Secretary of the Trust for over three decades and has practically steered the institutions to prominence. However, a loan of Rs 8.95 crore sanctioned to the Trust began gathering interest due to failure of debt-servicing.

While the notices have been issued to all the trustees—of the original 11, only five remain on the board— Secretary of the Trust Mr Taj Mohammed Khan is at the eye of the storm. Some of the trustees have either died or resigned from the trust during the last 20 years.

The trustees allege that the two properties to be auctioned as per the notice include 32,000 sqft land in Udayagiri where stands the Farooqia Women’s DEd College. The Trust had been sanctioned this land as a CA site. The second property is a four-acre plot of land in Belvatha village under survey no. 93/2 P1 in Kasaba Hobli.

This land is the only property purchased by the Trust during its 60 year tenure, all others being run on either Waqf properties or out of CA sites sanctioned by the MUDA. Curiously, the 4-acre Belvatha grama land is now a thriving housing colony with occupants claiming that they purchased the land from a joint developer’s firm, one of the partner being Mr Nabeel Ahmed Khan, son of Mr Taj Mohammed Khan.

The notice by the Canara Bank’s asset recovery branch states that trustees, especially secretary Taj Mohammed Khan has been fraudulently selling the land for housing plots knowing full well that Canara Bank had the first charge over the property thereby deceiving the general public of their hard-earned money and also cheating the bank by creating third party interest on the mortgaged property. It alleges that he has been fraudulently diluting the securities mortgaged to the bank.

This correspondent during his visit last week could notice nearly 70 newly built houses on the plots carved out of the 4-acre land while several others could be seen under various stages of construction. Trustees allege that Mr. Khan has not called for a meeting of the Trust since 2013. Prof Syed Akheel Ahmed who was appointed the President of the Trust following resignation by the former president Prof.

Riaz Ahmed recently, told the News Trail that Mr Taj Mohammed Khan has been conducting the affairs of the Trust and the institutions single-handedly for years without consulting the other trustees. He said he did not even appoint an acting secretary during his three-month absence from office when he went visiting the United States. He wondered as to how he was operating the bank accounts with signature of a single person all these years.

It is alleged that the 4-acre land could have a market worth of Rs. 36 crore if a square foot is to be valued at Rs. 2,000. It is alleged that the Trust land was passed on to Mr' Nabeel Ahmed Khan through a gift deed in 2012 by his father Mr. Taj Mohammed Khan. The gift deed however remained unregistered.

On approached by this correspondent, Mr Taj Mohammed Khan said nearly 2.5 acres of the land was encroached while a few plots were given to the members of the teaching staff of the RMET. Trustee Prof Syed Akheel A