Senior Samajwadi Party leader and former minister Azam Khan on Wednesday got a major relief when a local court in Badaun district set aside a sedition case against the leader. Chief Judicial Magistrate, Badaun, Amarjeet Singh rejected the case of sedition against Khan filed by one Bajrang Dal leader Ujjawal Gupta. However, the petitioner said that he would challenge the CJM courts order in Allahabad High Court. The court dismissed the sedition case against Azam Khan for allegedly making controversial remarks on Kashmir.
Chief Judicial Magistrate Amarjeet Singh dismissed the case on Tuesday and rejected the final report filed by the police in the matter. The case was registered against Azam Khan for his alleged controversial comments on Kashmir on December 21, 2010. The investigating officer had filed a final report in the case on May 5, 2012, against which Gupta had moved a protest application on January 8, 2013.
On May 24, 2013, the court rejected the final report and said it was false and was based on baseless facts to get desired results. It directed a re-investigation, asking the police to obtain an original recording from the media and make it a part of the probe. Following the court's judgment, Gupta said he will approach the high court against the decision.
Khan had come under attack from the Congress and the BJP for his controversial remarks on the status of Jammu and Kashmir. While the Congress had slammed Khan for his reported comment that senior party leader Ghulam Nabi Azad belonged to Kashmir and not India, and for questioning the status of the state, the BJP had demanded action against him. Dubbing his remark as "anti-national", the UP unit of the BJP had demanded that Khan should be booked for the offence.
Meanwhile a case has been filed against SP MlA from Swar Tanda in Rampur Abdullah Azam, son of Azam Khan relating to age of the legislator. Former MlA and Nawab of Rampur Nawab Kazim Ali Khan had filed the case. The court has fixed May 6 as next date of hearing where it has summoned both, the former MlA and Abdullah Azam.
During the March 2017 state assembly elections, Nawab Kazim Ali had challenged the age certificate of Abdullah Azam citing the two PAN cards of the former. Then the returning officers had then dismissed the objection filed by Kazim Ali, who was also in the fray from the Swar Tanda seat as Bahujan Samaj party candidate.
The senior SP leader in his reaction of the court’s order said `` I welcome the courts order and it makes no difference either to him or his son’’. He said `` such incidents will further strengthen the resolve of my son Abdullah Azam to fight injustice and continue the struggle for the justice to the poor and the downtrodden.