SP leaders meet Yogi over Azam issue

LUCKNOW: A delegation of Samajwadi Party (SP) leaders met chief minister Yogi Adityanath at his residence here on Friday morning and sought his attention towards the “Rampur district administration’s unfair, unjust, and politically motivated action against the SP’s Rampur MP Mohd Azam Khan.”

The delegation comprised senior SP leaders Mata Prasad Pandey, Ramgovind Chaudhary, Ahmad Hasan, Balram Yadav and state president of the party Naresh Uttam Patel.

The memorandum submitted to Yogi Adityanth stated: “The ruling party is acting out of political vendetta against Azam Khan and he was being humiliated and harassed, fake cases are being filed against him daily. How can one believe that a nine-time MLA, one time Rajya Sabha member, and a Lok Sabha member presently would steal goats and buffaloes?” The delegation also told the CM that Azam did a great service in the area of education by establishing the Jauhar University . The district administration was taking action against these very institutions, it said.

Meanwhile, in a statement issued later, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav said that all the case filed against Azam would not stand the tests of the trial.

Meanwhile, Rampur police on Friday registered a case against the son and sister of Azam and 35 others for allegedly selling government land belonging to district jail. A case of cheating, criminal trespass and causing damage to public property under sections 420, 447 and section 3 (2) was registered here at Ganj police station against Khan’s elder son Mohd Adib Khan, Nasrin Jahan (Azam’s sister) and others by Naib Tehsildar Krishna Gopal on the complaint of local BJP leader Akash Saxena.