Association of Indian Universities Suspends Al Falah University’s Membership Over Alleged Links to Red Fort Blast

The Association of Indian Universities (AIU) on Thursday suspended the membership of Al-Falah University, which has come under intense scrutiny following the Red Fort blast earlier this week, officials said.

AIU, a registered society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860, brings together Indian universities on a common platform to debate academic concerns and share administrative insights.

“It is intimated that, as per the bye-laws of the Association of Indian Universities (AIU), all universities shall be treated as members as long as they remain in good standing,” AIU Secretary General Pankaj Mittal said.

“However, it has come to notice that Al Falah University, Faridabad, Haryana, does not appear to be in good standing. Accordingly, the membership of AIU that was accorded to Al Falah University, Faridabad, Haryana, stands suspended with immediate effect,” she added.

Mittal also clarified that the university is no longer authorised to use AIU’s name or logo in any capacity and must remove it from its official platforms.

Al-Falah University, located in Dhauj village in Faridabad and known for its medical college and teaching hospital, drew attention after agencies busted an interstate “white-collar” terror module. The blast — a high-intensity explosion inside a car near Delhi’s Red Fort on Monday that killed 13 people and injured several others — occurred just hours after the arrests of eight individuals, including three doctors affiliated with the university.

As the investigation expanded, the Delhi Police Special Cell and Madhya Pradesh Police raided the Mhow residence of the university’s director, Javed Ahmed Siddiqui, 61.

He and his family were questioned after the National Investigation Agency (NIA) sought academic and administrative records dating back to 2019 to probe a suspected terror network allegedly operating through Al-Falah Medical College and the parent university.

On Thursday, NIA and Delhi Police teams also searched the Al-Falah Group’s Okhla office, seizing land papers and financial documents.

Investigators have sought detailed records of hostel allocations, faculty hiring, and financial transactions, focusing on whether three doctors — Umar Un Nabi (identified as the man who executed the car blast), along with Shaheen Shahid and Muzammil Shakeel Ganaie — misused their institutional positions to recruit individuals, gather funds, or coordinate logistics for the attack.

Senior police officers said the joint team carried out searches in Mhow to trace financial links and examine any connection between Siddiqui and the two MBBS doctors arrested earlier. So far, investigators have not found evidence directly linking the university as an institution to the attack.

At the Okhla office, the university’s legal adviser Mohammad Raazi told Hindustan Times, “We had no idea of the doctors’ activities. Our campus was never used for any funding or experiment linked to terror. The police have taken documents and we are fully cooperating.”

The probe has also resurfaced old questions around Al-Falah University’s financial dealings and governance. Officers noted that Siddiqui, associated with the Al-Falah group since the 1990s, has ties to at least nine institutions operating from the same Okhla address.

He was previously arrested in a 2000 cheating case for allegedly siphoning off Rs 7.5 crore through fake investment firms bearing the Al-Falah name, including Al-Falah Education Service, Al-Falah Investment Ltd, and Al-Falah Exports. He spent three years in jail before being acquitted in 2005.

More raids are expected across Delhi, Haryana, and Madhya Pradesh as investigators map out the financial and logistical framework of the suspected module behind the deadly Red Fort blast.