Delhi Police Crime Branch has executed a high-profile arrest with Jawad Ahmed Siddiqi, Chairman of Al-Falah Group and Chancellor of Al-Falah University, taken into custody. Siddiqi is alleged to have committed large-scale cheating and forgery, primarily of false university accreditation as a means to cheat his students and regulators.
Reasons for arrest
Two FIRs registered in November 2025 resulted in a criminal charge by the Crime Branch following complaints from the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC). The school, investigators said, must have:
- Claimed UGC recognition under Section 12(B) to attract admissions and grants.
- Displayed fake NAAC accreditation grades on its website, despite never having applied for them.
- Defrauded students’ fees totaling over ₹415 crore between 2018 to 2025.
The Connection with Terror
Though the charges charged on that charge alone include financial fraud, the arrest is deeply intertwined with a larger national security inquiry. Al-Falah University came under intense heat again in November 2025 after the discovery that Umar-un-Nabi, the suicide bomber behind the November 2025 Red Fort area blast, was employed by the university as a professor. Further investigations by the NIA and ED have linked a group of university doctors to a 'white-collar' terror module they suspect has been run by a member from a particular group.
Submitting to Four days of police detentions
A remand was made against Siddiqi before a Delhi court Wednesday, February 4, 2026, and he was remanded to four days of police custody. The Crime Branch convincingly argued custodial interrogation is vital for:
- Retrieve forged documents and electronic evidence kept in the university library and server rooms.
- Expose the money that has been tied to money on educational earnings and possible terrorism financing.
- Determine the shell companies that are employed to consolidate the “proceeds of crime.”
The Enforcement Directorate has attached ₹140 crore in Al-Falah Trust assets. As Siddiqi is now in the hands of the Crime Branch, officials hope to dismantle the administrative machinery that enabled these alleged irregularities to take root for decades.
