A Rampur court has handed down the sentence and a Rs 20,000 fine for what it called an objectionable comment during the Lok Sabha campaign. It is no surprise this has riled up the state’s political class, especially with the SP veteran already behind bars on an older conviction.
Court ruling and sentence
The special MP-MLA court in Rampur found him guilty in the case over his “will make you clean shoes” line. “The court has sentenced Azam Khan to two years and also put a fine of Rs 20,000 on him,” said Rakesh Maurya, the Special Public Prosecutor.
Over the course of the trial, the court heard from 10 witnesses for the prosecution before convicting him under a number of IPC and Representation of People Act sections. He was in the dock on Saturday via video link from the Rampur jail, where he has been since November of last year on a separate forgery charge.
Nasir Sultan, one of Khan’s lawyers, says they will be filing an appeal. They plan to put both the conviction and the term in front of a higher court.
How the case started
It all goes back to the 2019 General Elections. At a public gathering in Rampur, Khan is said to have let some strong words fly at the district administration and then at DM Anjaneya Kumar Singh. That led to accusations he was trying to put pressure on poll officials.
The Bhot police station put the case on the books on May 11, 2019, after a complaint from then-SDM Ghanshyam Tripathi. His side of it was that the comments were aimed at government men and were being shared on social media, which is a clear breach of the Model Code of Conduct.
After the probe, a chargesheet was filed and the matter came before the special court. Now, with the conviction and sentencing done, a once-heated campaign issue has become a very real legal problem for the SP old-timer.
Here are the key procedural takeaways so far:
– FIR filed on May 11, 2019 in Rampur
– Charges include IPC 153-A, 153-B, 505 and RPA Section 125
– Court examined 10 prosecution witnesses
– Defence plans to appeal the judgment
Why the verdict matters politically
Khan is no stranger to the spotlight; as a 10-time MLA from Rampur Sadar and ex-Cabinet minister, he is among the SP’s most visible Muslim leaders. When he ran in 2019 as the joint candidate for the SP-BSP-RLD, how he conducted himself was of interest to the whole state.
This latest judgment has re-opened an old divide. You have the opposition saying the state is after its rivals and the BJP saying the law is just doing its job. For the SP, it is yet another layer of complexity in their legal and political planning.
A widening legal dragnet
If you look at the UP Police files, there are 81 cases against him since 2017. Some 70 of those were in 2019, with a few more in 2020, for everything from land disputes to hate speech.
He has been found guilty in eight of them so far – one in Moradabad, the rest in Rampur. He has won bail in some after a stay on the conviction and has been let off in six others. But the state has taken some of those acquittals to a higher level.
With both sides in the ring, every decision has a way of echoing in the run-up to an election.
What comes next
For now, it is up to the appellate courts. Khan’s team is going to make a stand on the two-year term and the fine. Whether they get any reprieve or a suspension of the sentence will be telling for the SP’s story.
In the end, it is a reminder for the people of Rampur and elsewhere of how a word or two in a campaign can lead to years of legal wrangling. What happens next will come down to how the higher courts see the evidence and the limits of what can be said in an election.
