Senior Samajwadi Party leader and former Minister Azam Khan was on March 18, sentenced to seven years imprisonment in connection with a case of trespass and vandalism of a house in Uttar Pradesh’s Rampur in 2016. This is the fifth case in which Khan, who is already in jail, has been convicted over the past one year. Therefore, indeed these big blows have brought peril in paradise for Azam Khan and his family.
Along with Azam Khan, three others – the former Mayor of Rampur, Azhar Ahmad Khan, former district officer Aale Hasan, and Barkat Ali.– were found guilty by the MP-MLA court in Rampur on March 15. On March 16, the MP/MLA court found all four guilty under IPC sections 427, 504, 506, 447, and 120 B. Azam Khan, currently incarcerated in Sitapur Jail, appeared in court via video conferencing. The court handed them five-year sentences. Another three accused in the case – Zibran, Farman and Omendra Chauhan – were acquitted by the court.
The Background
According to the prosecution, the incident occurred in 2016, but the case was filed three years later. In his complaint filed in 2019, Ahtesham Khan told police that he had bought a parcel of land in Rampur district’s Dongarpur in 2011-12 to set up a school. In a portion of the land, he had built a house where he started living with his family. On the evening of February 3, 2016, Azhar Khan, Aaley Hasan and Barkat Ali, along with 20-25 policemen, forcibly entered his house, dragged his family out, vandalised household items, and ran a bulldozer over the property, he said in the complaint.
Ahtesham alleged that the accused also took away Rs 25,000 in cash and a cellphone from the house. He also said that the accused had told him that this was being done to his family for not voting for Azam Khan. He then went to Azam Khan to complain about the incident, at which time the politician, along with others, abused and threatened him with imprisonment, the complaint alleged.
Azam Khan and the three others to be convicted have been held guilty under Indian Penal Code sections 452 (house trespass after preparation for hurt, assault or wrongful restraint), 427 (mischief causing damage to the amount of Rs 50), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 506 (criminal intimidation).
“Besides sentencing him to seven years imprisonment, the court also imposed a fine of Rs 8 lakh on Azam Khan. A fine of Rs 3.5 lakh has been imposed on the other three convicts,” district government counsel Amit Saxena said. Azam’s lawyer Nasin Sultan said they would file an appeal against the conviction.
Since the Yogi Adityanath led BJP came to power in Uttar Pradesh in 2017, a total of 81 cases have been registered against Azam Khan, who was the former MP of Rampur. These charges range from land-grabbing to cheating and criminal trespass.
In some cases, Azam’s wife Tanzeen Fatima, and son Abdullah Azam have been named as co-accused. For instance, last year, Azam Khan, his wife Tanzeen Fatima, and son Abdullah Azam Khan were sentenced to seven years in prison for their involvement in a fake birth certificate case.
This case, related to the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly elections, involved Abdullah Azam Khan contesting on an SP ticket from the Swar constituency in Rampur. Following allegations that Abdullah Azam misrepresented his age in his electoral affidavit, a petition was filed in the High Court.
It was alleged that Abdullah Azam’s declared age did not match the information on his educational documents and birth certificate. Abdullah Azam was accused of using two different birth certificates, one issued by the Rampur Nagar Palika in June 2012, claiming Rampur as his birthplace, and the other issued in January 2015, showing Lucknow as his birthplace.
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