UTTAR PRADESH MLA AND SP LEADER AZAM KHAN GETS DISQUALIFIED

Azam Khan, the leader of the Samajwadi Party, was removed from office by the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly on Friday, the day after a court handed down a three-year prison term in a case involving hate speech.

Khan was found guilty on Thursday in a 2019 case involving hate speech and given a three-year jail term by the Rampur MP-MLA court.

An MP/MLA court in Rampur sentenced Azam Khan to three years in prison on Thursday after finding him guilty of charges of using hate speech against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and others during the 2019 general election campaign.

Azam was arrested for violating Penal Code Sections 153A and 505A, which encourage hostility between various groups, as well as Section 125 of the Representation of the People Act (promoting enmity between classes in connection with election).

According to the FIR, Azam further claimed in a scathing diatribe that the former Rampur collector had "turned Rampur into hell within a month.” A vacancy has been declared by the UP Vidhan Sabha Secretariat consequent upon the disqualification due to the judgment passed by the court," he said.

Azam was also given a Rs 6,000 fine by the trial court in addition to the prison term. He was given bail in exchange for two 25,000 rupee bonds each.

Over 50 instances of land grabbing, intimidation, and theft are pending against Azam. After spending 27 months in jail awaiting trial, he was ordered by the Supreme Court to be freed on bail in May of this year.

Nishant Man, an assistant chief judicial magistrate (special court MP/MLA), issued the following ruling in Hindi:  “Accused Azam Khan made an objectionable speech and used derogatory words in his speech against those holding constitutional posts/ officers, threatened, instigated riots, appealed to a particular community for vote in the name of religion and tried to spread class conflict, which falls in the category of violation of the Model Code of Conduct.”