''Stolen'' books recovered from Azam Khan's varsity

Compounding the troubles for firebrand Samajwadi Party (SP) leader and party MP Azam Khan, police recovered hundreds of rare books, which were reportedly ''stolen'' from a 'madarsa' (Islamic Seminary), from Maulana Mohammed Ali Jauhar University of which he was the chancellor, in Rampur, his native district, about 325 kilometres from here, on Tuesday.

According to the sources here, a police team raided the varsity's library on Tuesday and recovered more than 100 books. Four persons have been taken into custody.

The books were allegedly stolen from Rampur based 'Madarsa Aliya', which had been set up in 1774, and a complaint had also been lodged with the police. The library was sealed and the police did not rule out the possibility of recovering more ''stolen'' books from there.

Azam Khan, who escaped a possible suspension from the Lok Sabha following his ''unparliamentary'' remarks on deputy speaker Rama Devi, by tendering apology, suffered a severe jolt, when the seven-acre land leased to his Jauhar University by the previous SP government was cancelled.

Azam was recently declared a ''land mafia'' by the UP government and his name was included in the list of land mafia in the portal which lists names of people, who grab lands and never vacate 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.