In a stark reminder of bureaucratic enforcement, authorities in Madhya Pradesh have slapped a final demolition order on a storied four-story edifice in Mhow, long revered as a neighborhood icon and tied to the lineage of a prominent educational leader.
The Mhow Cantonment Board, tasked with upholding local regulations, delivered the ultimatum to the kin of Mohammad Jawad Ahmed Siddiqui, who serves as chairman of Al Falah University. The notice targets their family residence in the Kayastha area, abandoned since the early 2000s, over claims of unpermitted expansions that render the entire property non-compliant.
Erected in the 1990s by the late Mohammad Hammad Siddiqui—Jawad’s father—the building endures as “Maulana’s Building,” a moniker whispered with affection by locals. Its facade, adorned with over 25 windows and anchored by a spacious underground level, towers as a visual anchor amid the bustling lanes, symbolizing an era of quiet influence in the community.
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Harishankar Kaloya, the cantonment’s engineer, detailed the procedural snag in a recent statement. The edifice, he noted, lingers under the original proprietor’s registration, untouched by any transfer of deed. “Cantonment statutes demand that approvals for upkeep or alterations flow solely to the documented owner,” Kaloya clarified. With no such handover, the full construct falls into the category of illicit development, prompting the board’s decisive intervention.
This administrative crackdown unfolds against a tense backdrop of heightened investigations into the Siddiqui clan, spurred by a sprawling fraud inquiry spanning multiple states. The probe gained fresh momentum following alleged ties between at least two physicians from Al Falah Medical College in Faridabad, Haryana, and a suspected terror network implicated in the November 10 explosion adjacent to Delhi’s Red Fort.
Compounding the scrutiny, law enforcement this week apprehended Jawad’s sibling, Hamud Ahmed Siddiqui, in Hyderabad. At 50, Hamud had evaded capture for over two decades, his name etched in a slew of 2000-era swindle complaints filed in Mhow. Officers describe a pattern of deceit: Hamud purportedly lured investors—often veterans from the Army and Military Engineer Services—with glittering assurances of lucrative yields via sham financial outfits, only to vanish with their funds.
Under an alias in Hyderabad’s Gachibowli district, Hamud orchestrated a stock trading venture, weaving a web of evasion that extended to mundane logistics like routing utility deliveries to off-site locations, investigators revealed. The arrest marks a pivotal turn in efforts to unravel these lingering deceptions, as authorities press forward with parallel demolitions and deeper probes into familial entanglements.