Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan convicted in 2019 hate speech case

As the video clip of his speech went viral on social media, Rampur district’s assistant development officer (Panchayat) Anil Kumar Chauhan registered a complaint against Azam Khan at the Shahjad Nagar police station.

Disqualified from Uttar Pradesh assembly

The development comes as Azam Khan was disqualified from the Uttar Pradesh assembly after getting convicted in October 2022 in the case of another hate speech. The conviction was later overturned by a Rampur court and the SP leader was acquitted in the case.

The acquittal did not help Azam Khan to regain his seat in the assembly as he and his son Abdullah Azam Khan were also convicted in another case of 2008 in which the duo was accused of assaulting public servants. The incident occurred as their car was stopped by the police for checking.

Interestingly, as Azam Khan got disqualified from the UP assembly and his seat fell vacant, the BJP gave ticket to the complainant in the hate-speech case Akash Saxena, who defeated Azam Khan’s close aide Asim Raja in the by-polls.

More than 80 cases against Azam Khan

Azam Khan has more than 80 cases registered against himself and spent around 27 months in jail before the Supreme Court ordered to grant him bail in all the cases. He walked out of prison in May 2022. Previously, he served as a cabinet minister in the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party government in Uttar Pradesh between 2012-2017.

Since then the Samajwadi Party has lost two consecutive elections with BJP becoming the first party in more than 30 years to return to power in Uttar Pradesh.

Updated: 15 Jul 2023, 03:53 PM IST