Azam Khan convicted in 2019 hate speech case; gets two years in jail

Azam Khan was accused of giving a provocative speech targeting Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, the then Rampur District Election Officer and the Election Commission of India.

Rampur (Uttar Pradesh): Senior Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Azam Khan was on Saturday convicted by an MP/MLA Court here in 2019 'hate speech' case. Magistrate Shobhit Bansal of Special Court for MPs and MLAs held the 74-year-old leader as guilty. The Magistrate has awarded 2 years imprisonment to the SP national general secretary.

The special court has also imposed a fine of Rs 1,000 on Azam Khan. A case was registered against Azam Khan for making a provocative speech during a rally at Dhamora under Shehzad Nagar police station area on 8 April 2019 during 2019 Lok Sabha general elections. Azam Khan was accused of giving a provocative speech targeting Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, the then Rampur District Election Officer and the Election Commission of India (ECI). The case was filed following a complaint by district development officer (Panchayat) of Rampur Anil Kumar Chouhan.

Azam Khan present in the court when the judgement was delivered. A local court in 2022 convicted Azam Khan in another hate speech case and sentenced him to three years imprisonment, following which he was disqualified from the Assembly. In May this year, the MP MLA court overturned the three-year sentence awarded to Azam Khan by the lower court while accepting an appeal filed against the sentence.

On Friday in a surprise decision, the Uttar Pradesh government had withdrawn the Y Security given to Azam Khan, a former Uttar Pradesh minister and national secretary of the Samajwadi party. However, hours later, police had said that basic security of Khan would be retained.