Now ''stolen lions'' found in Azam Khan's varsity

A day after recovery of hundreds of rare ''stolen'' books from the library of Samajwadi Party (SP) leader and party MP Azam Khan's Maulana Mohammed Ali Jauhar University at Rampur, his native district, about 325 kilometres from here, two ''stolen'' stone statues of lions were found inside the varsity campus on Wednesday.

Police sources here said that two lion statues made of stone were installed close to the main entrance of the varsity.

''These statues belonged to the Rampur Club and had gone missing when the Club building was demolished a few years back,'' said a senior district official in Rampur.

He said that the PWD owned the Club. ''The PWD officials recognised them as the same statues, which were installed at the Rampur Club,'' he added.

The Club building had been demolished during the previous Samajwadi Party regime and a hostel was constructed there.

Police said that a case was registered in this connection and the investigation was on.

The district officials and the police, during a raid on the varsity of which Azam was the chancellor, had recovered hundreds of rare ''stolen'' books.

The books were allegedly stolen from Rampur based 'Madarsa Aliya', which had been set up in 1774, and a complaint in this regard had also been lodged with the police.

Azam was recently declared a ''land mafia'' by the UP government and his name was included in the list of people, who have found mention on the anti-land mafia portal. The portal has names of people, who grab lands and never vacates it.

Azam has been accused of grabbing lands of several local farmers. As many as 13 cases of land grabbing were registered against Azam in the past one week only.