Samajwadi Party leader Abdullah Azam Khan, who is son of former Uttar Pradesh Minister Azam Khan, has been disqualified from the state Assembly, in view of his conviction in a 15-year-old case by a district court in Moradabad.
This is the second time when Abdullah stood disqualified as an MLA from Suar constituency in Rampur district. Earlier, this had happened due to alleged forging of date of birth certificate.
The Allahabad High Court in 2020 set aside his election, finding that he was not qualified to contest the election as he was below 25 years of age when he filed his nomination papers as the Samajwadi Party candidate from Suar in 2017. However, he managed to win the seat again in the 2022 Assembly elections.
On Monday, Abdullah was sentenced to two years imprisonment by an MP/MLA court in Moradabad in a case related to blocking of road.
With this, the seat he represented has been declared vacant.
The MP/MLA court had also sentenced Abdullahs father and senior SP leader Azam Khan in the case. It also slapped a fine of Rs 3,000 each on the father-son duo.
Both Azam and Abdullah were charged with inciting violence and preventing public officials from discharging their duty by squatting on a state highway on January 29, 2008 after their vehicle was stopped by the police for checking.
However, the court granted bail to Azam and his son.
It is to be noted for the first time in 25 years, no member of Azam Khans family would be a member of the UP Assembly.
In October, 2022, Azam Khan, who represented Rampur Sadar in the assembly, too stood disqualified as an MLA since a court sentenced him to three years in jail in a hate speech case.
Subsequently, in the by-poll held in December, BJP's Akash Saxena defeated Khan's protege Asim Raza.
