After books-buffaloes, Azam now booked for stealing goats

Rampur, Sep 13 (IANS) After being accused of stealing land, books, statues and buffaloes, now Samajwadi Party MP Azam Khan has been booked for stealing goats.

An FIR against him has been lodged on a complaint filed in October 2016 by one Naseema Khatoon, 50, a resident of Yateem Khan Sarai Gate, Rampur Public Gate.

The complainant has alleged that Azam Khan, along with seven cohorts and some 25 other unidentified people barged into her house on October 15, 2016, vandalised her residence and stole her jewellery and three buffaloes, a cow and four goats.

She said that she had been living as a bona fide tenant on the Waqf Board property for the past two decades and that Khan and his team members asked her to vacate the premises as the land was required for a school.

Prominent among those named in the FIR include Waseem Rizvi, chairman of the Shia Waqf Board, Zufar Ahmed Farooqui, chairman of the Sunni Central Waqf Board and former circle officer, Aaley Hasan.

The Rampur Police has also registered an FIR against Azam Khan' wife Tanzeen Fatima, also a SP MP, for electricity theft.

With this FIR, Khan, who has been declared a "land mafia" by the state government, now has 82 cases registered against him, 50 of which relate to land grabbing. Another 28 cases have been registered against him on the complaint of farmers of Aliyaganj.

His anticipatory bail application has already been rejected by a local court.

The Rampur MP has a warrant against him issued by ACJM (I) after he failed to appear before the court in a case registered against him in 2010 under section 171 G, related to giving a false statement during election.

Another case in which arrest warrant has been issued includes one in which Khan made derogatory remarks against BJP candidate Jaya Prada during the Lok Sabha elections 2019. The SP MP has been denied anticipatory bail in five other cases earlier.