Samajwadi party leader Azam Khan sentenced to two years in jail for hate speech
Rampur (UP), July 15: Senior Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan has been handed a two-year prison sentence by an MP/MLA court in another case related to inflammatory speech during the 2019 general elections.
Judge Shobhit Bansal found Khan, 74, guilty and sentenced him to two years in jail. Additionally, a fine of Rs. 2500 has been imposed on the former Uttar Pradesh minister, as confirmed by Joint Director Prosecution Shiv Prakash Pandey.
The case was filed against Khan for allegedly delivering a provocative speech targeting the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, the then Rampur district election officer, and the Election Commission during a rally in the Dhamora area on April 8, 2019, amidst the Lok Sabha polls.
Prosecution officer Amarnath Tiwari stated that the case was registered by the video surveillance team in-charge, Anil Kumar Chauhan.
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This comes after an MP-MLA court convicted Khan last year in another hate speech case, which originated from a public meeting he addressed in Khatanagaria village of the Milak Kotwali area in 2019. He was sentenced to three years in prison and subsequently disqualified from the UP assembly.
However, in May of this year, a sessions court overturned the lower court's verdict.
Azam Khan had been in jail for the past 27 months due to various cases, including alleged land grabbing. He was granted interim bail by the Supreme Court and released in May last year.
Following the recent verdict, Tiwari mentioned that Azam Khan may be granted bail in the case under Section 389 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). This provision enables the appellate court to suspend the sentence and grant bail pending any appeal by the convicted individual, provided the sentence does not exceed three years.
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- With inputs from agencies
