‘To focus on health’: Azam Khan out on bail says
Senior Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Azam Khan has been released on bail spending around two years in prison on various charges
Lucknow: Senior Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Azam Khan has been released on bail spending around two years in prison on various charges.
Azam Khan was released from Sitapur Jail today afternoon after the Rampur court issued a release order in the last pending case against him.
Azam Khan’s sons Adeeb, Abdullah Azam and several SP leaders, gathered outside the jail to welcome him as he walked out of the prison.
Following his release from the jail, Azam Khan travelled to Shahjahanpur in a large motor convoy of supporters. His younger son and former MLA Abdullah was seen sitting in the backseat of the car with his father sitting in the front seat with the driver.
‘Priority is health, not politics’
Azam Khan is former Minister who represented Rampur seat of Uttar Pradesh as MLA and MP multiple times. Besides a number of development projects, his hallmark work is establishment of Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar University.
Talking to reporters after he came out of jail, Azam Khan said his priority now is health.
“Abhi to ilaj karwana hai…”, he told reporters when asked about his future course of politics.
He said he was confined to jail under strict conditions in the last five years, and was not allowed to contact anyone.
“I have been completely out of touch with everyone during this period”, he said.
While in jail, Azam Khan had also found Covid 19 positive. He, however, had won the battle against the deadly virus.
Cases against Azam Khan: Timeline
Azam Khan faced some 89 criminal cases filed against him since 2019. These cases, filed after the BJP came to power in UP in 2017, primarily related to land grabbing, forgery, hate speech, and misuse of power.
He was first arrested on February 29, 2020, in connection with a case involving the alleged forgery of his son and MLA Abdullah Azam Khan's birth certificate.
He was released on May 19, 2022 following a bail order by the Supreme Court of India and was released after spending 27 months in jail. In a telling observation during Azam Khan's case, the apex court had said that "a pattern is emrging to keep the SP leader permanently in jail."
In October 2023, a Special Court in Rampur convicted him - along with his wife Tazeen Fatima and son Abdullah, to seven years in prison in the Rampur Quality Bar land encroachment case, that led to his immediate re-arrest and return to Sitapur Jail. Since then he was in jail, and released today after 23 months.
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