Samajwadi Party MLA leader Azam Khan has been disqualified from the assembly membership after a conviction in a hate speech case. This ruling came one day after the SP leader was sentenced to three years in jail along with a fine of Rs 2,000 in a hate speech case in 2019.
Following his conviction, the office of UP Assembly Speaker on Friday announced that SP leader and Rampur MLA Azam Khan has been disqualified from membership in the UP Legislative Assembly.
According to the 2013 Supreme Court judgment, if an MLA, MLC, or MP is convicted in a criminal case and gets jailed for a minimum of two years, then they lose membership of the house with immediate effect.
Azam Khan won the 2019 Lok Sabha election from Rampur, but he vacated this seat after being elected to the UP state assembly in March 2022. The SP leader had won the 2022 assembly election from Rampur while lodged in Sitapur jail.
On Thursday, 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 speech against UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. However, he has been granted bail and given a week to appeal against the sentence.
In April 2019, during the Lok Sabha election campaign, a case was registered against Azam Khan in Rampur for making provocative remarks against the Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath and the then Aunjaneya Kumar Singh, District Magistrate of Rampur. Earlier this year, Azam Khan was released from Sitapur district jail, a day after the Supreme Court granted him interim bail in an alleged cheating case.
On October 1, 2022, the Allahabad High Court put his arrest on hold. The matter pertains to the disappearance of machines used for construction in 2017, for which a case was registered on September 19 this year.
On May 10, 2022, the Allahabad HC granted interim bail to Khan in a case related to wrongful possession of Waqf Board property.
Azam Khan started his political career by winning the 1980 assembly election on the Janata Party ticket from Rampur. He has served as a minister in both Akhilesh Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav governments.
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