Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan was convicted by a Rampur court on Saturday in a hate speech case lodged during the 2019 Lok Sabha election campaign. The court sentenced him to two years imprisonment and imposed on a Rs 2,500 fine on him too. The case was registered against him for allegedly making provocative remarks against Yogi Adityanath and IAS Aunjaneya Kumar Singh, the then DM.
This is the third case in which the 10-time MLA from Rampur has faced conviction in the last six months. He was earlier acquitted in one of the cases after he appealed in a lower court. According to a report by Indian Express, Khan was convicted Indian Penal Code sections 505 (1) B (with intent to cause, or which is likely to cause, fear or alarm to the public, or to any section of the public whereby any person may be induced to commit an offence against the state or against the public tranquillity) and 171G (false statement in connection with an election). He has reportedly sought for bail in the case.
Two days ago, the Uttar Pradesh government withdrew his Y-category security. However, Additional Superintendent of Police (of Rampur) Sansar Singh told PTI that Azam Khan had now been given 'provisional security cover' at the district level."It was felt at the district level that it is necessary to provide him security, so the Superintendent of Police deployed security and sent a report to the government," he said.
Khan had won the Rampur assembly seat in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh polls for a record 10th time. After becoming the MLA, he had resigned from the Lok Sabha. In October 2022, the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly Secretariat announced the disqualification of Khan from the House, a day after a court sentenced him to three years in jail in a hate speech case.
According to reports, as many as 81 cases have been registered against Khan in Rampur on various charges, including land-grabbing, cheating and criminal trespass, ever since the BJP came to power in Uttar Pradesh in 2017.
(This is a developing story. More details are awaited.)
