Senior Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan was sentenced to two years in prison by an MP/MLA court in Uttar Pradesh's Rampur on Saturday in a case of inflammatory speech during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The case against him was filed for allegedly making a provocative speech targeting the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, the then Rampur district election officer, and the Election Commission at a rally in the Dhamora area on April 8, 2019, during the Lok Sabha polls.
Judge Shobhit Bansal convicted Azam Khan, 74, and sentenced him to two years imprisonment, news agency PTI reported. He is also asked to pay a fine of Rs. 2500, Joint Director Prosecution Shiv Prakash Pandey said, as per PTI's report.
Prosecution officer Amarnath Tiwari said that the video surveillance team in-charge Anil Kumar Chauhan had registered the case against Khan.
An MP-MLA court had last year convicted the former Samajwadi Party MP in another hate speech case which was registered after he addressed a public meeting in Khatanagaria village of the Milak Kotwali area in 2019. He was sentenced to three years of imprisonment, following which he was disqualified from the UP assembly.
However, in May this year, a sessions court overturned the verdict of the lower court.
Azam Khan was lodged in jail for the last 27 months in connection with several cases, including for alleged land grabbing. He was released in May last year after being granted interim bail by Supreme Court.
After the verdict was pronounced on Saturday, Prosecution officer Tiwari said that Azam Khan can be granted bail in the case under 389 CrPC, as per the report.
The provision allows that pending any appeal by a convicted person, the appellate court may, for reasons to be recorded by it in writing, can order the suspension of sentence and grant bail, provided the sentence should not exceed three years.
Subscribe And Follow ABP Live On Telegram: https://t.me/officialabplive