Lucknow: Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav has demanded immediate restoration of the Assembly membership of former MLA Azam Khan in the wake of his acquittal in a hate speech case and demanded a judicial probe into the ‘false’ allegations leveled against Azam Khan.
“The judiciary should investigate the involvement of state authorities in the “false case” leveled against Azam Khan and the corrupt officers who have become a puppet in the hands of the BJP government and they should be punished,” he said. In a tweet Akhilesh Yadav said: “The truth about fake cases under BJP government has started to come out.
The corrupt officer who pressured the public on the directions of the government to register a fake case should be punished.
On this basis, Azam Khan’s assembly membership should also be revoked. The court must probe the complicity of the state.”
Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party has has asked the Yogi Adityanath government to withdraw all “false” cases against Azam Khan.
A 24-member delegation of the Samajwadi Party, including senior MPs Shafiqur Rehman Burk, ST Hasan and Javed Ali met the divisional commissioner of Moradabad on Saturday and presented a memorandum drawing the government’s attention towards alleged harassment and lodging of fake cases against Khan and his family.
Samajwadi Party MP Javed Ali Khan said that he will bring a private member’s Bill in the Rajya Sabha seeking amendment of The Representation of the People Act to bar disqualification of legislators until charges against them have been proved by all courts of law.
Azam Khan, the 10-time MLA, was acquitted by the Rampur Additional District and Sessions Court on Wednesday in a 2019 hate speech case, overturning the October 2022 verdict by a special MP/MLA court sentencing him to three years in jail. After his conviction, Azam Khan was disqualified from the membership of the Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha, leading to a by poll in the Rampur Sadar seat, which was won by the Akash Saxena of the BJP.