Senior Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Azam Khan was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Thursday, May 30, in a case involving forced eviction. Additionally, he was fined ₹14 lakh. A court in Rampur, Uttar Pradesh, had convicted Khan on Wednesday in an eight-year-old case of forcibly evicting a homeowner and assaulting him.
District government advocate for the MP/MLA court, Seema Singh Rana, stated, “Azam Khan was found guilty yesterday, and today, the sentence was announced. He has received a 10-year prison term and a fine totaling ₹14 lakh.”
The incident took place in December 2016 in Dungarpur Basti, Rampur. The complainant, Abrar, accused Azam Khan and retired Circle Officer Barkat Ali of forcibly entering his home, damaging property, and assaulting him to force him out.
#WATCH | Rampur, Uttar Pradesh: District government advocate MP/MLA court, Seema Singh Rana says, “Azam Khan was convicted in a matter yesterday and the quantum of sentence was pronounced today. He has been sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment. He has also been penalised with a… pic.twitter.com/8Z2pNR4RVb
— ANI (@ANI) May 30, 2024
“The second accused, Barkat Ali, has been sentenced to seven years in prison and fined ₹6 lakh,” the advocate added.
Meanwhile, former MP Tazeen Fatima, Azam Khan’s wife, was released from Rampur District Jail after securing bail from the Allahabad High Court last week. Upon her release, she remarked, “Injustice has been defeated, and justice is alive and has been served by the court.”
On May 24, the court granted bail to Azam Khan, his wife Fatima, and their son Abdullah Azam Khan in a separate case involving a fake birth certificate. Fatima had been in Rampur jail since October last year following her conviction by a local court.
The Rampur Sessions Court had sentenced them to seven years in prison for forgery related to Abdullah’s birth certificates. The case originated on January 3, 2019, when Akash Saxena, now a BJP MLA from Rampur, filed a complaint alleging that Azam Khan and his wife had obtained two birth certificates for their son.