Jauhar varsity moves court on police raids, UP govt's response sought

Mohammad Ali Jauhar University registrar R. A. Qureshi on Thursday filed a plea in the Allahabad High Court against raids in its premises by Uttar Pradesh police for allegedly storing books stolen from other institutes.

The high court bench comprising of Justices Shashikant Gupta and Saurabh Shyam Shamshery admitted the plea and directed Additional Advocate General (AAG) Ajit Singh to file the government's response on the matter.

The court posted the matter for hearing on August 6.

Advocates Safdar Quazmi and Kamrul Hassan Siddiqui appearing for the university registrar submitted in the court that the police entered into the university without a search warrant and ransacked Chancellor Azam Khan's office, and arrested some employees.

AAG Singh told the court that an FIR was filed in connection with the book theft. "The police are acting on order from the magistrate as per the law," he said.

The court directed Singh to ensure that the police act in conformity with the law.

On Tuesday, the police conducted searches in the university premises including at Mumtaz Central Library for over four hours and claimed to have recovered over 2500 expensive books, furniture and manuscript allegedly stolen from some other institutes.

On Wednesday, Samajwadi Party MP and the university's chancellor Azam Khan's son, MLA Abdullah Azam, was detained by the police for allegedly obstructing the police raids at the university in Rampur.