Rampur: In more trouble for Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan, the Uttar Pradesh police have registered a case against him for making an alleged offensive remark while campaigning for the upcoming Rampur assembly bypoll in Uttar Pradesh. According to reports, the case against the influential SP leader has been registered on the basis of a complaint filed by a woman named Shehnaaz Begum to the police. According to Deputy Superintendent of Police of Rampur Anuj Kumar Chaudhary the complainant had submitted an audio clip of Azam Khan’s controversial speech made during a public meeting at Shuta Khana. 


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The Rampur police have also launched an investigation into the case. The woman in her police complaint alleged that Azam Khan said, "I was a minister in the last four governments and if I would have used the power like this then unborn kids would ask their mothers if they had his permission to take birth."


A video of Azam Khan’s controversial speech was also shared widely by several Twitter handles, which evoked a sharp response from netizens.


 



 


Acting on the woman’s complaint, the Rampur police booked the SP leader under Sections 394(b), 354 A, 353 (A), 504, 505 (2), 509 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 125 of the Representation of the People Act.


Azam Khan, the Muslim face of Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party, reportedly made the comment while campaigning in support of the party candidate Asim Raja in the upcoming bypolls of the Rampur Assembly Seat.


The senior police official also told reporters that several women from the area were offended by Khan`s highly insensitive statement. Azam Khan had recently accused the Rampur administration and the local police were harassing his family and supporters at the behest of the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh - a charge flatly denied by the state police.


The Rampur Assembly seat fell vacant after the Rampur District Court sentenced Azam Khan to three years in prison in a 2019 hate speech case. He eventually lost his Assembly membership because his prison term was longer than two years. 


Rampur will go to the polls on December 5 for the Mainpuri seat, which fell vacant after SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav died on October 10. On October 27 this year, the Samajwadi Party leader and two other accused were sentenced to three years in prison along with a fine of Rs 2,000 in a hate speech case filed against him over his comments against Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. However, he was later granted bail and given a week`s time to appeal against the sentence.


(With Agency Inputs)