Azam Khan's Bulandshahr remark invites SC wrath

Apex court stays CBI probe in gangrape case, asks whether State should stop people holding high offices from making such comments

New Delhi: The controversial remark of UP minister Azam Khan yesterday, stating that the Bulanshahr gangrape case was a “political conspiracy” drew a sharp reaction from the Supreme Court, which stayed the CBI probe in the sensational case and asked whether the State should stop people holding high offices from making such comments on heinous crimes.

Azam Khan 

While staying the Allahabad High Court decision ordering CBI probe, a bench of Justices Dipak Misra and C Nagappan noted the apprehensions of the victims’ family that there was no possibility of a “fair investigation” in Uttar Pradesh as a minister has allegedly made a such a statement.

“In the meantime, as an interim measure, it is directed that there shall be stay of the (CBI) investigation pertaining to the FIR,” the court said. The bench also sought responses from Khan, who holds several key portfolios including Urban Development, and the Akhilesh Yadav government on the plea seeking shifting of probe and trial in the case out of Uttar Pradesh. The brutal gangrape incident had occured on July 29 when a group of highway robbers stopped the car of a family and sexually assaulted the woman and her daughter.

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