The investigation into the Delhi Red Fort car blast widened on Thursday to include Javed Ahmed Siddiqui, founder and managing trustee of Al-Falah University in Faridabad. Siddiqui is now under scrutiny after it emerged that the university employed two of the three main suspects, Dr Shaheen Saeed and Muzammil Shakeel. The institution is already being examined by the Enforcement Directorate over its funding pattern, but investigators are now focusing on Siddiqui’s extensive business network, the Al-Falah Charitable Trust, and an older criminal case alleging large-scale fraud and forged documents linked to his companies.
Who Is Javed Ahmed Siddiqui?
Siddiqui, born in Mhow, Madhya Pradesh, is closely tied to a network of nine companies operating under or connected to the Al-Falah Charitable Trust, the governing body behind Al-Falah University. These firms cut across education, software, financial services and energy, with most sharing a single registered address, Al-Falah House in Delhi’s Jamia Nagar, a detail now viewed as a potential red flag by investigators.
The 9 Firms Include:
Al-Falah Investment (the first, formed in 1992); Al-Falah Medical Research Foundation (where Saeed, Shakeel and others allegedly worked and met to plan a possible 32-car serial bomb attack); Al-Falah Developers Pvt Ltd; Al-Falah Industrial Research Foundation; Al-Falah Education Service Pvt Ltd; MJH Developers Pvt Ltd; Al-Falah Software Pvt Ltd; Al-Falah Energies Pvt Ltd; and Tarbia Education Foundation.
Most of these entities remained active until 2019 before shutting down or becoming dormant. The exception is the Al-Falah Medical Research Foundation, which began in 1997 as an engineering college and now occupies a 78-acre campus. It is currently facing scrutiny by the NAAC. The same Jamia Nagar building also houses the Al-Falah Charitable Trust office.
