
A day after the AP State Wakf Board (APSWB) had taken control of the properties of Madina Education and Welfare Society (MEWS), headquartered at Nampally in the city, wakf board special officer and minority welfare commissioner Shaik Mohammad Iqbal on Thursday directed the officials to lodge a criminal complaint against Madina Education and Welfare Society secretary KM Arifuddin.
The wakf board on Wednesday took over the control of five properties of Madina Education and Welfare Society, which originally belonged to Majlis-e-Shoora Dast Parche Baafi Harmain Sharifain (MSDPBHS). The properties include Baitul Madina, Nampally; Madina Manzil, Himayatnagar; Madina Mahal, Hyderguda; Madina Vila, Mangalhat; and ten shops at Vithalwadi.
Speaking to reporters after inspecting the Madina Public School, Iqbal said there was a prima facie case of irregularities in the management of the institutions. He said disciplinary action would also be initiated against the officials of the board who colluded with Arifuddin.
He said that the staff and students of the educational institutions run by the Madina group would not be disturbed by the takeover.
Taking exception to Arifuddin declaring a two-day holiday for the school without the board’s permission, he asked the officials to lodge a complaint with the Narayanaguda police against Arifuddin.
Iqbal said Arifuddin was running pharmacy, engineering and management colleges at Moinabad and if proof was found that those colleges were being run with the funds of MEWS, the Wakf Board would also take over those institutions and their properties. The details of income-tax returns filed by Arifuddin and Madina Education and Welfare Society would be accessed by the board. The officer was surprised to note that Arifuddin was the Mutawalli and secretary of the Wakf institutions and leased out the properties to himself for 30 years. Though accounts had been submitted, they were not properly audited. The Wakf fund paid by him was a pittance of Rs 11,770 a year, he said.
Iqbal said that a team, led by deputy secretary MA Ghaffar, took over the Wakf properties on Wednesday. At present, the Wakf Board gets a revenue of Rs 7 crore per annum. Steps were being taken to increase the revenue to Rs 100 crore, he said.
Arifuddin, the Owner-cum-tenant
Arifuddin became the Mutawalli (caretaker) of the properties during 1984-89 and he formed Madina Education and Welfare Society in 1991. Interestingly, he acted both as landlord and tenant, and gave prime properties on nominal lease to Madina Education and Welfare Society owned by him. An inquiry, conducted on an Assembly panel’s orders in 1997, found several lapses in the functioning of the Majlis-e-Shura, but the report had been in cold storage since 2003. Iqbal has decided to reopen the case and implement the report. On November 25, 2013, the Wakf Board passed a resolution on constituting a panel to review the case. Farees Ahmed moved the HC against the board’s inaction.