Mumbai: Samajwadi Party leader Abu Asim Azmi, convicted for a provocative speech on Tuesday blamed the Congress-NCP government for letting police file chargesheet even when there was no case made out against him.
Addressing a press conference, Azmi rejected the charge that he had spoken of a second partition in the country.
"I have never spoken against my country nor have I said that the country will be split into pieces," the SP MLA from Govandi said.
Azmi faces two years of imprisonment and a fine of Rs 11,000 along with four others. He said he will appeal against the judgement in the higher courts in a month`s time.
Azmi said court judgements are based on what documents are provided to them by the police and the government. "Judgements can go wrong sometimes. I have faith in the judiciary and am confident that I will get relief from the higher courts," he said adding that he had been framed by the police with `malafide` intentions.
"Congress-NCP government in the state is helping communal forces. They feel closer to Shiv Sena than to the Samajwadi party," he alleged.
Azmi said when the issue had created an uproar in the Legislative Assembly 12 years ago, the then Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh had sought a report from the J J Marg police station which had said that there was no case against him.
"However,the chargesheet was still filed against me by the police with malafide intentions," he charged.
Azmi wondered why the state government had never sanctioned prosecution of Sena chief Bal Thackeray and MNS president Raj Thackeray under the same provisions of 153(a) of the IPC.
PTI
