Azam Khan gets 2-year imprisonment in case booked over 2019 hate speech

“On Saturday, the Rampur court held Azam Khan guilty in the hate speech case. Later, in the day court sentenced him (Azam Khan) to two years imprisonment and also imposed a fine on him,” said Joint Director (Prosecution) Shiv Prakash Pandey.

The court convicted Azam Khan under Indian Penal Code sections 505 (1) B (with intent to cause, or which is likely to cause, fear or alarm to the public, or to any section of the public whereby any person may be induced to commit an offence against the state or against the public tranquillity) and 171G (false statement in connection with an election). He was also convicted under section 125 (promoting enmity between classes in connection with election) of the Representation of the People Act.

“Khan has moved a bail application seeking bail in the case. The court has yet to decide on the bail plea,” said Pandey, adding that the court examined seven prosecution and 11 defence witnesses.

The case was lodged at the Shahjad Nagar police station in Rampur on April 8, 2019, in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections. He was accused of giving an inflammatory speech targeting the Uttar Pradesh chief minister and the district magistrate, who was also the returning officer, at a public meeting in the Milak Vidhan Sabha area.

The speech was made when the SP and the Bahujan Samaj Party were contesting the elections in an alliance. Khan won the Rampur Lok Sabha seat beating the BJP’s Jayaprada. He gave up his Lok Sabha membership after he was elected as an MLA in the state elections. Following his conviction in a hate speech case, Khan was disqualified from the Assembly last year.

Two days ago, the government withdrew Khan’s ‘Y category’ security stating that it was no longer required. On Friday, however, the Rampur police decided to provide policemen for his security. “The security that the Rampur police gave to Azam Khan is temporary. We have informed the government that we have provided security to him because of a [valid] reason,” said Sansar Singh.

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

Bail and acquittal

In February, a Moradabad court sentenced Khan and his son Abdullah Azam Khan to two years’ imprisonment in a 15-year-old case in which they were booked for blocking traffic after their vehicle was stopped by police for checking. The court, however, granted bail to both of them.

In October last year, Khan was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment by a Rampur court in a hate speech case, also lodged during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The case related to alleged use of improper language for Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and others. The conviction led to his disqualification from the Assembly and resulted in a bypoll that was won by the BJP.

Later, in May, Rampur’s session court acquitted Khan in the case. Pandey said the prosecution had filed an appeal against the acquittal.