Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan released from Sitapur jail after 23 months

Sitapur (Uttar Pradesh) [India], September 23 (ANI): Samajwadi Party (SP) leader and former Lok Sabha MP Azam Khan was released from Sitapur jail in Uttar Pradesh, where he was lodged for nearly 23 months. He was jailed in connection with the Quality Bar land encroachment case.
SP MLA Shivpal Singh Yadav who had come to recieve Azam Khan, attacked the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh while alleging that his colleague and former Lok Sabha MP Azam Khan was "framed" in false cases.
Addressing reporters, Yadav welcomed the decision by the courts to grant bail to Azam Khan, who was lodged in Sitapur jail.
"Azam Khan was framed by the government in false cases. However, the court has granted him bail and has provided relief to him in cases. I welcome this decision. I welcome the Supreme Court and the High Court. Many false cases were filed against him. The Samajwadi Party stands beside him," Yadav, six-time MLA of Jaswantnagar assembly constituency, said.
When asked whether Khan would join the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Yadav dismissed the claims, saying, "These are all lies. Samajwadi Party is with him completely."
Khan recently secured bail from the Allahabad High Court in connection with a land encroachment case.
Earlier, the Allahabad High Court on Thursday granted bail to former UP Minister Mohammad Azam Khan in the Quality Bar land case.
Speaking to ANI, Azam Khan's advocate, Mohammad Khalid, stated that with this bail, there are no pending cases keeping him in jail, suggesting he's likely to be released soon.
"So, there's no pending case that would keep him in jail. As of today, bail has been granted in all the cases. This process may take two to three days. As of now, there are no other pending cases...," said Khalid.
Explaining the Quality Bar land case, Khalid said that the allegations claimed Azam Khan misused his power as a Cabinet Minister in 2013 to allot land to a family member.
"This matter was related to a society that owned a building called Quality Bar and owned some land. The allegation was that when Khan Sahab was a Cabinet Minister in 2013, he misused his power and, through his influence on society, allotted this land on lease to a family member. While the facts were otherwise, the society was independent, had issued a tender, and the highest bidder was his family member, his wife, so she was allotted. This is a 2013 matter. An FIR was filed in 2019, and a further investigation was conducted in 2024, in which Khan Sahab was named as an accused. We presented all these facts to the court...so bail was finally granted in this one as well today," Khalid said.
On May 16, Azam Khan's advocate Nasir Sultan said that Additional Session Judge Vivek Kumar of the MP-MLA court acquitted Azam and seven others for lack of evidence.
"Nearly one dozen FIRs were lodged against Azam and others in the year 2016 Dungarpur incident, in which houses were demolished for the implementation of the Asara scheme during the SP government. One of the cases was lodged by Shafeeq Bano in 2019, in which she claimed that she constructed a house on the land purchased in 2012," he said. (ANI)