The Allahabad High Court has declined the bail and sentence suspension applications of Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan and three others related to a 2016 house trespass incident in Dungarpur township of Rampur. This decision sustains the seven-year prison sentence handed to Khan, a former Uttar Pradesh minister, by a special MP-MLA court in Rampur on March 18.
Alongside Khan, former circle officer Aley Hasan Khan, Barquat Ali alias Faqir Mohd, and Azhar Khan were also denied relief and will continue serving their respective sentences of five years each, as ordered by the Rampur court. The charges stemmed from an accusation of forcibly demolishing a house during the Samajwadi Party’s administration in Uttar Pradesh.
The four had appealed against the Rampur court’s decision in the high court, seeking suspension of their sentences and release on bail during the appeal’s pendency. However, Justice Rajeev Mishra, presiding over the matter, concluded that “no definite finding can be returned by this court at this stage,” effectively rejecting their applications.
The defendants were initially charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including 447 (criminal trespass), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), and 506 (criminal intimidation), culminating in their 2019 arrest.
