SC raps Azam Khan for silence on notice

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday rapped Uttar Pradesh minister Azam Khan for not filing a response to the notice sent to him for referring to the Bulandshahr

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday rapped Uttar Pradesh minister Azam Khan for not filing a response to the notice sent to him for referring to the Bulandshahr gang rape case as a ‘political controversy’.

HT Image

A bench of Justice Dipak Misra and JusticeUday Lalit told the UP state counsel that Khan should have entered his appearance through a lawyer. The state advocate said he was not representing the minister because the statement he made was in his personal capacity.

At this additional solicitor general Maninder Singh, appearing for CBI, expressed surprise.

“In our considered opinion Azam Khan should have entered appearance when there are direct allegations against him in the writ petition. We direct the CBI to serve notice on him,” the bench ordered.

The victim’s father has moved the top court demanding a CBI probe into the gruesome incident reported on July 28.

He has asked for the transfer of case from Uttar Pradesh to Delhi in the wake of Khan’sstatement that the gang rape was a “political conspiracy and nothing else.”