Provocative speech gets Abu Azmi jail term

In a rare ruling, a Mazgaon court on Monday, convicted sitting MLA and president of Samajwadi Party Abu Asim Azmi for giving provocative speeches.

In a rare ruling, a Mazgaon court on Monday, convicted sitting MLA and president of Samajwadi Party Abu Asim Azmi for giving provocative speeches.

He and four others have been sentenced to two years imprisonment and have been fined Rs 11,000 each.

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Azmi, Wakarunissa Ansari, Lalbahadursingh Vijaysingh, Ahsanulla Habibulla and Alimiya Shamsuddin were, however, granted bail on a surety of Rs 5,000 each. The court has also suspended their sentence so as to allow the accused to approach the sessions court challenging the conviction.

The complaint by Ganpatrao Sadashiv Madgulkar, who was Narayan Rane’s personal assistant in 2000, stated that during a public meeting at Mazgaon on February 24 that year, Azmi delivered speeches with the intention of promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion and race and committed acts that went against the maintenance of harmony.