Samajwadi Party MLA Azam Khan gets interim bail in land grabbing case

The Allahabad High Court on Tuesday granted interim bail to Samajwadi Party MLA Azam Khan in a case related to alleged grabbing of enemy property for his Jauhar University project.

The bail order was passed by Justice Rahul Chaturvedi.

The interim bail has been granted on the condition that Khan has to return the entire enemy property to paramilitary forces and has to furnish personal bond of Rs 1 lakh and two sureties of like amount.

However, Khan will not be able to walk out of the jail as a Rampur district court last week issued a warrant against him in another case, his lawyer said.

Khan's lawyer Khaleel Ullaha Khan said over phone from Rampur that the high court has granted him bail.

But the Rampur MLA wouldn't be able to come out of the jail because the police have served him a warrant at Sitapur jail in another case, he said.

An FIR was lodged at Azem Nagar police station in Rampur against Khan and others in 2019 for alleged grabbing of enemy property and misappropriation of public money of more than hundreds of crores of rupees.

It was alleged in the FIR that during partition one Imamuddin Qureshi went to Pakistan and his land was recorded as enemy property, but Khan in collusion with others grabbed the 13.842- hectare plot.

The interim bail to Khan comes after the Supreme Court on May 6 expressed displeasure over the delay in hearing his bail application in the land grabbing case, saying this is a "travesty of justice".

A bench comprising justices L Nageswara Rao and B R Gavai noted that Khan has got bail in 86 out of 87 cases, and said it would hear the matter on May 11.