Relief for Azam Khan: Uttar Pradesh court acquits Samajwadi Party leader in 2019 hate speech case

File Photo/PTI

A court in Uttar Pradesh has acquitted Samajwadi party leader Azam Khan in 2019 hate speech case. The court in Rampur overturned the verdict of a lower court which had found the Samajwadi leader guilty of hate speech last year. Azam Khan has a strong following in Rampur and other parts of western Uttar Pradesh.

Khan faces 87 cases, with charges ranging from corruption and theft to land grab, filed since the Bharatiya Janata Party took power in Uttar Pradesh in 2017.

An MP-MLA magistrate court had on October 27, 2022 sentenced Khan, the then SP MLA from the Rampur Sadar seat, in the case. Following this, Khan was disqualified as an MLA.

A government counsel in the case said the special court accepted the appeal filed against Khan's sentence.

Khan's counsel Vinod Sharma said, "We have been acquitted in the hate speech case. We are happy that we have got justice."

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"Our contention that we had been framed in the case has been upheld by the court, and the judgement is in our favour," Sharma added.

After Khan's membership to the assembly was disqualified, a by-election was held in the Rampur Sadar seat. BJP candidate Akash Saxena defeated the SP's Asim Raja, a close aide of Khan, in the polls. (With inputs from PTI)