UP court acquits Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan in 2019 hate speech case

A Rampur court acquitted senior Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan on Wednesday in the 2019 hate speech case. Khan had lost his membership of the Uttar Pradesh assembly last year following conviction in this case.

A judicial magistrate of the MPMLA court in Rampur in October last year sentenced Khan to three years’ imprisonment for making provocative statements against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, chief minister Yogi Adityanath and then Rampur district magistrate Aunjaneya Kumar while campaigning for the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

While Khan lost his membership with immediate effect and BJP won the subsequent bypolls, he appealed against the verdict to the upper session judge of the MP-MLA court who acquitted him on Wednesday. The court held that the prosecution failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt, which makes the lower court’s order “erroneous” and cancelled the order that had convicted Khan.


In the order, a copy of which was seen by ET, upper session judge Amit Veer Singh acknowledged “prior conflict” between district magistrate Kumar and Khan. The order of the lower court was based on “inadmissible” evidence, he said. He also said the first information report filed against Khan did not contain the transcript of the entire speech but bits anparts of the speech which did not establish a case against Khan. Significantly, the order said, Khan has not said anything that creates animosity between communities on the basis of religion, birthplace, etc.

While Khan's disqualification and the subsequent bypolls were based on conviction in the hate speech case, he is also convicted for two years in a separate case which also causes his disqualification according to rules.