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Name: Khan, K. Rahman
Current Position:

 

K. Rahman Khan has been the Union Cabinet Minister for Minority Affairs since October 28, 2012, when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh reshuffled his cabinet.

 

 Khan was born on April 5, 1939, in Krishnarajpet town of Mandya district of Karnataka. His father K. Khasim Khan was a school teacher, who later became a businessman.

 

Khan earned his Bachelor of Commerce from D. Banumaiah's College of Commerce and Arts, which is affiliated with the University of Mysore. After graduation, Khan moved to Chennai to prepare for the Chartered Accountant exam.  He then became Karnataka’s first Muslim chartered accountant. 

 

Khan began his political career as member of Karnataka Legislative Council in 1978 and served till 1990. In between, he was elected chairman of Karnataka Legislative Council in 1982. He served until 1984.  

 

In 1993, Khan was appointed Chairman of Karnataka State Minorities Commission. He served for a year. In April 1994Khan was elected for the first time for Rajya Sabha, the upper house of Indian Parliament.

 

He also served as chairman of Joint Parliamentary Committee on the functioning of Wakf Boards in 1999. He also as a member of the JPC from July 2001 to February 2004.

 

In April 2000, Khan was re-elected to Rajya Sabha. From May 2000 to July 2004, he served as the deputy leader of the Congress party in the Rajya Sabha.

 

Khan served an abbreviated stint as Minister of State in the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers from May 2004 to July 2004.  On July 22, 2004, he was elected Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha and he served till April 2, 2006. He was re-elected on May 12, 2006 and served till April 2, 2012. He has been elected to the Rajya Sabha four times. 

 

 In November 2012, shortly after becoming Minorities Minister, Khan was hit with a major scandal. Anwar Manippady, who chairs the State Minorities Commission, fingered Khan in a case that came to be known as the Karnataka Wakf Board Land Scam. Manippady told the New Delhi-based weekly newspaper The Sunday Guardian that while a member of the Karnataka Wakf Board, the body that oversees mosques, shrines, monuments and other property donated for the welfare Muslim community, Khan engaged in various unethical deals. These included encroaching on and siphoning off pieces of Wakf land, misappropriating funds from a shrine, and giving an ITC Hotel a 90-year-lease on prime Bangalore real estate for Rs 7,500 ($138 USD) per month, less than the cost of a night in the hotel.

 

 In December, 2012, Manipaddy reported Khan to the state Lokayukta, the body that investigates corruption.  Manipaddy pushed for a probe of a scam allegedly worth Rs. 3000 crore that took place in Amanath (SP) Co-operative bank during the chairmanship of Khan from 1988 to 2002.  

 

Official Biography

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