Tag: SP Azam Khan

  • Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan gets three-year jail term in hate speech case; granted bail

    Express News Service

    LUCKNOW: In a major jolt to senior Samajwadi Party leader and MLA from Rampur, Mohammad Azam Khan, the Rampur MP/MLA court, on Thursday, awarded him a jail term of three years while slapping him with a penalty of Rs 25,000 in a case of hate speech dating back to 2019 general elections.

    However, the court also granted conditional bail to the SP stalwart immediately after pronouncing the quantum of punishment giving him a week’s time to file an appeal against the order in the higher court.

    Azam Khan, 74, was convicted by the court in the case for using objectionable language against persons holding prominent constitutional positions including PM Narendra Modi, UP CM Yogi Adityanath and the then Rampur DM Anjaneya Kumar Singh at a public rally during the 2019 general elections.

    Reacting to his conviction and the jail term, Khan said, “I have not lost faith. Not all doors have closed, I will appeal against the order in a higher court. We have already proceeded in this regard and confabulation with lawyers are on.”

    One of the senior most leaders of Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party, Azam Khan is set to lose his Assembly membership owing to his conviction and three-year jail term as he faces disqualification as an MLA if he doesn’t challenge the sentence immediately before the High Court.

    The Uttar Pradesh Assembly can also move ahead to disqualify him owing to the existing rule pertaining to a jail sentence of two or more years for a sitting lawmaker in any case.

    The case of hate speech was registered against Khan in Rampur in April 2019. He has been convicted under Sections 153 A (promoting enmity between two groups), 505 (statement conducing to public mischief) of IPC and Section 125 of the Representation of People Act 1951.

    An FIR was lodged against him after the returning officer had taken cognizance of the matter following the submission of a complaint in this regard.

    During his election campaign in 2019 when Azam Khan was contesting as a joint SP-BSP candidate from Rampur Parliamentary segment and had won, the Samajwadi leader accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of creating an atmosphere across the nation where Muslims found it difficult to exist.

    He was accused of seeking votes on religious lines while using objectionable language against his Congress rival and the then Rampur DM whom he had accused of turning Rampur into hell.

    After Khan’s address, cases were registered against him in a number of police stations and he was accused of inciting communal trouble in Rampur through his election speeches.

    On Thursday, Azam Khan, who was present in the MP/MLA court, was taken into custody after pronouncing him the convict in the case of hate speech.

    Earlier, the court had rejected the plea of the SP leader for deferring the date of pronouncement of the order. He had submitted that as the matter was pending in Allahabad High Court so the date of pronouncement of judgement by MP/MLA court should be postponed.

    The veteran SP leader was released from Sitapur District jail in May, this year after spending around two years in jail following the Supreme Court order granted him interim bail in a case of land grabbing. Azam Khan has been facing 87 cases of different criminal offences.

    However, Azam Khan’s conviction comes a week after the Supreme Court asked the Centre and the Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand governments to act tough on hate speeches.

    LUCKNOW: In a major jolt to senior Samajwadi Party leader and MLA from Rampur, Mohammad Azam Khan, the Rampur MP/MLA court, on Thursday, awarded him a jail term of three years while slapping him with a penalty of Rs 25,000 in a case of hate speech dating back to 2019 general elections.

    However, the court also granted conditional bail to the SP stalwart immediately after pronouncing the quantum of punishment giving him a week’s time to file an appeal against the order in the higher court.

    Azam Khan, 74, was convicted by the court in the case for using objectionable language against persons holding prominent constitutional positions including PM Narendra Modi, UP CM Yogi Adityanath and the then Rampur DM Anjaneya Kumar Singh at a public rally during the 2019 general elections.

    Reacting to his conviction and the jail term, Khan said, “I have not lost faith. Not all doors have closed, I will appeal against the order in a higher court. We have already proceeded in this regard and confabulation with lawyers are on.”

    One of the senior most leaders of Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party, Azam Khan is set to lose his Assembly membership owing to his conviction and three-year jail term as he faces disqualification as an MLA if he doesn’t challenge the sentence immediately before the High Court.

    The Uttar Pradesh Assembly can also move ahead to disqualify him owing to the existing rule pertaining to a jail sentence of two or more years for a sitting lawmaker in any case.

    The case of hate speech was registered against Khan in Rampur in April 2019. He has been convicted under Sections 153 A (promoting enmity between two groups), 505 (statement conducing to public mischief) of IPC and Section 125 of the Representation of People Act 1951.

    An FIR was lodged against him after the returning officer had taken cognizance of the matter following the submission of a complaint in this regard.

    During his election campaign in 2019 when Azam Khan was contesting as a joint SP-BSP candidate from Rampur Parliamentary segment and had won, the Samajwadi leader accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of creating an atmosphere across the nation where Muslims found it difficult to exist.

    He was accused of seeking votes on religious lines while using objectionable language against his Congress rival and the then Rampur DM whom he had accused of turning Rampur into hell.

    After Khan’s address, cases were registered against him in a number of police stations and he was accused of inciting communal trouble in Rampur through his election speeches.

    On Thursday, Azam Khan, who was present in the MP/MLA court, was taken into custody after pronouncing him the convict in the case of hate speech.

    Earlier, the court had rejected the plea of the SP leader for deferring the date of pronouncement of the order. He had submitted that as the matter was pending in Allahabad High Court so the date of pronouncement of judgement by MP/MLA court should be postponed.

    The veteran SP leader was released from Sitapur District jail in May, this year after spending around two years in jail following the Supreme Court order granted him interim bail in a case of land grabbing. Azam Khan has been facing 87 cases of different criminal offences.

    However, Azam Khan’s conviction comes a week after the Supreme Court asked the Centre and the Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand governments to act tough on hate speeches.

  • I’m poor person without base, have no reason to be upset with party leadership: Azam Khan

    By PTI

    RAMPUR: As his absence from the SP MLAs meet fuelled speculation about his resentment with the party leadership, senior leader Azam Khan on Sunday said he is a “poor person” without any base and does not have any reason for being upset.

    Khan, who held immense sway in the party during the SP rule, was released from the Sitapur jail on Friday after spending 27 months in judicial custody in dozens of cases.

    Asked if he would end his “continuing resentment”, Khan told reporters, “I am getting this information about the resentment only from you. I don’t understand any reason.”

    ALSO READ | ‘My own people contributed to my destruction’: Azam Khan after his release from jail

    He said there should be some “basis” for resentment.

    “I am a man without any base, so where will the basis for resentment come from? I am a poor person now and live in a bylane. I am a poor person who lives in such a congested lane that not even a single four-wheeler could enter it,” he added.

    Khan who skipped the Samajwadi Party’s legislators’ meet on Sunday, a day ahead of the beginning of the maiden session of the Uttar Pradesh assembly, also said, “The Vidhan Sabha is not a new place for me. I will be entering it for the 10th time.”

    Apparently referring to Jauhar University, founded during the Akhilesh Yadav government with he himself playing a major role in its establishment, Khan said, “If this university is demolished or bulldozer is moved over it, its razed remains will narrate the history more than the standing building.”

    “I want to give pens to children and the mission is still alive,” he added.

    Azam also visited the Rampur district jail on Sunday to meet his close aide Guddu Massod who has been lodged there in judicial custody in a case of forgery.

    Khan visited the jail along with his MLA son from the Suar assembly segment, Abdullah Azam, and met other jail inmates also.

    Azam Khan was released from the Sitapur jail on Friday, a day after the Supreme Court granted him interim bail in a cheating case.

    He was lodged in jail for the last 27 months, facing trial in several cases, including that of land grabbing.

    Earlier amid complaints from Khan’s camp that SP supremo Akhilesh Yadav has been “ignoring” Khan and the Muslim community, though it backed the SP in the UP assembly polls, the party veteran had not met SP MLA Ravidas Mehrotra when he had visited him in the Sitapur jail on April 24.

    But only a day later on April 25, he had met Congress leader and spiritual guru Pramod Krishnam.