Lucknow, May 29 (IANS): In a major jolt to beleaguered Samajwadi Party MP Mohd Azam Khan, the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Waqf Board has taken direct control of Waqf number 157, commonly known as the land belonging to the Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar Trust, till now headed by Azam Khan.

The Board's chairman using his special powers has put the Waqf under an administrator-executive officer Junaid Khan, who will now be managing the over five acres of Waqf property for a period of five years until further notice.

While the decision was taken in March, it could not be delivered due to the lockdown.

Junaid Khan received the Board's letter recently.

As per the official document, the Sunni Waqf Board had an "apprehension of the Waqf property being encroached upon and present mutawalli (caretaker) being unable to manage the same." This formed the premise to take over the property.

"Land was given to the Trust which was its mutawalli. Now, Waqf number 157 is under the direct management of the board," said Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board CEO S.M. Shoeb.

Junaid Khan said, "The land was enlisted as Waqf by Nawab Raza Ali Khan of Rampur as an orphanage in the 1900s. Some 40-42 descendants of those orphans were living on the land. In 2016, they were removed and Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar Trust took over the property."

"An under construction school occupies about 35 per cent of the land and, in addition, some 26 people have been brought back to their home in the area," he said.