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10-yr jail to Azam Khan in 2016 forced eviction case
SP leader Azam Khan sentenced to 10 years in prison for forcibly vacating, looting, and demolishing a house in Rampur in 2016, fined ₹14 lakh.
The special MP/MLA court, Rampur, on Thursday sentenced senior Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Azam Khan to maximum 10 years’ imprisonment and slapped a fine of ₹14 lakh after finding him and another guilty in an eight-year-old case of forcibly vacating a house, looting and demolishing it in Dungarpur Asra Awas Yojana colony in Rampur in 2016, said senior prosecution officers.
District government advocate, MP/MLA court, Seema Rana said the court convicted Azam Khan and contractor Barkat Ali in the case on Wednesday.
She said Khan was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment and fined ₹14 lakh while Barqat Ali was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment and fined ₹6 lakh. She said the MP/MLA court judge Vijay Kumar pronounced the judgment.
Senior prosecution officer Shiv Prakash Pandey said the case was registered by plaintiff Abrar in Ganj police station in which he alleged that on December 6, 2016, Ale Hasan and Barkat Ali Contractor entered his house, beat him, tried to kill him and broke the house and looted goods from there.
He said Azam Khan was accused of conspiracy in this case. He said the court held the duo guilty under IPC sections, including 392 (loot), 452 (criminal house trespass), 504 (assault), 506 (criminal intimidation) as well as 120-B (criminal conspiracy).
Pandey said the file of retired deputy superintendent of police Ale Hasan was separated because his proceedings are stayed as per the order of the high court. The trial of Azam Khan and Barkat Ali Contractor took place, he added.
Khan was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment in another case related to the same incident earlier on January 31, 2024, while acquitted in two other cases related to it.
The cases were registered against him and others in 2019 after the BJP government came to power in the state in 2017. It is the third case in which Khan has been sentenced since July 2023. Earlier, he was handed two years’ jail in a hate speech case by Rampur MP/MLA court on July 15, 2023.
