New Delhi: The Supreme Court of India has asked Uttar Pradesh minister Azam Khan to file affidavit mentioning an apology for his alleged remark in Bulandshahr rape case.
The next hearing is on 7th December.
Azam Khan bizarrely suggested the incident as an "opposition conspiracy".
"We need to investigate whether this is a conspiracy by opponents who want to defame the government," he had said and added "For votes, people can go to any level. There can be a Muzaffarnagar, a Shamli and Kairana...why not this? For power, politicians can murder people, trigger riots, kill innocent people, so the truth has to be found out," he remarked.
The minister is known to invite trouble with his loose talk.
Azam Khan's remark on Kargil:
Azam Khan's comment that a Muslim won the 1999 Kargil war for India had ignited a row and caught the Election Commission's (EC) attention.
The EC had asked for the audio of a speech by Samajwadi Party leader, who said at a rally, "The peaks of Kargil were conquered not by a Hindu, but Muslim soldiers."
More controversies related with Azam Khan:
On 28 August 2012, Azam Khan lost his temper. He verbally abused an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer during a meeting, shouting at the officer: "Bakwas karte ho...chup baithiye...badtameez kaheen ke" (Stop talking non-sense...sit quietly...you ill-mannered).
Azam Khan, on 11 April 2014, said that Sanjay Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi had been punished by Allah for "forcible" sterilisation during the Emergency and "shilanyas" at the disputed site in Ayodhya.
During the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, he also commented on Narendra Modi's acknowledgment of his marriage, saying "the person who could not live with his wife, how can he live with the country?".
It has been alleged that Azam Khan pressured the cops of the state to not arrest people from the Muslim community during the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots.
Azam Khan, on 21 November 2014, commented that Taj Mahal should be handed over to the Wakf board. The minister was widely criticized for this remarks, as the Taj Mahal belongs to the whole of the India, not to a single community.
The minister was also in the news, when some of his buffalo were stolen and sniffer dogs and a team of 100s of policemen were deployed for the job.
Who is Azam Khan:
Azam Khan is a member of the 16th Legislative Assembly of Uttar Pradesh of India. He is also a Cabinet Minister in the state of Uttar Pradesh. He has been a member of the Legislative Assembly for eight terms from Rampur assembly constituency. He is a Sunni Muslim.