Court acquits Azam in case that cost him MLA seat

On October 27 last year, Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate-1 Nishant Mann convicted Khan and sentenced him to three years in prison. The next day, Khan, who represented the Rampur Sadar seat, was disqualified from the Assembly.

After the acquittal, Advocate Zubair Ahmad, who represented Khan in court, said the legal team will decide the next course of action in the coming days.

Setting aside the conviction order, Judge Amit Veer Singh said the prosecution failed to prove its case “beyond doubt”. He said the lower court reached a conclusion without understanding the essence of Khan’s speech or examining the evidence, and without giving reasons – which was “illegal”.

The court also took note of the statement of prosecution witness Anil Kumar Chauhan – an election official on whose complaint the FIR was lodged. Chauhan told the court that he lodged the complaint against Khan under pressure from then Rampur District Magistrate Aunjaneya Kumar Singh, who was the Returning Officer.

“This proves that there were some issues between Azam Khan and the then District Magistrate,” the court said in its order.

Stating that the prosecution had “accepted” that complaints of bias were made against Singh to the then Moradabad Divisional Commissioner, the court mentioned the testimony of another prosecution witness, Chandrapal, who was then posted as Assistant Development Officer (Panchayat), Shahbad.

In his testimony, Chandrapal confirmed that Azam, his wife Tanzeen Fatima, son Abdullah Azam Khan and Samajwadi Party workers had lodged several complaints with the Election Commission against Singh, the court order said.

The court said the then District Magistrate could have started criminal or civil proceedings against Khan — if he made objectionable remarks against him in his speech – but instead he put pressure on Chauhan to get a case lodged.

“As per the deliberations, the conclusion drawn is that the allegations in the FIR could not be confirmed by any of the evidence presented by the prosecution,” the court said.

The court also said that the transcript of the speech provided in the complaint – based on which the FIR was lodged – was not complete, and only select parts were used in the FIR. The court said that this was not done under procedure laid down in the Indian Evidence Act.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Additional District Government Counsel Pratap Singh Maurya said, “An appeal was filed in the court of the additional district and sessions judge against the conviction order passed on October 27. The appeal was allowed and the earlier order was set aside by the honourable court on Wednesday.”

Advocate Zubair Ahmad, who represented Khan, said, “In the same case, Azam Khan spent considerable time in prison. Because of the conviction, he lost his membership (of Assembly). Because of the same case, his name was struck off the electoral rolls. Our legal team will examine this and decide the next course of action.”

Less than two months after Khan’s disqualification from the Assembly, the bypoll for Rampur Sadar seat was held on December 8. Khan’s close aide Asim Raja was defeated by the BJP’s Akash Saxena.

Since the BJP came to power in Uttar Pradesh in 2017, as many as 81 cases have been registered against Khan in Rampur on various charges, including land-grabbing, cheating and criminal trespass. Khan’s wife and son were also booked along with him in some of these cases. All three are currently out on bail.