Uttar Pradesh: SP leader Azam Khan denied bail in RSS defamation case

Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan's bail plea in the case pertaining to the alleged misuse of government letterhead and stamp to malign the RSS was on Wednesday rejected by a special MP/MLA court here.

Khan is accused of misusing the government letterhead and stamp for allegedly defaming the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Shia religious leader Maulana Kalbe Jawad in 2014 when he was a minister in the SP government in Uttar Pradesh.

An FIR was registered against the incumbent Lok Sabha MP from Rampur in 2019.

Special Judge Harbans Narayan rejected the bail application. The court had reserved its decision in the case on Tuesday after the hearing.

The defence counsel said Khan was in jail for a long time and the charge levelled against him has been seen by the magistrate court and claimed that the matter was politically motivated.

Opposing the bail, special advocate Ramesh Kumar Shukla and assistant district government advocate Jwala Prasad Sharma argued that the report against Khan was lodged by plaintiff Allama Jamir Naqvi on February 1, 2019 at Hazratganj police station.

The report said the incident took place in 2014, but due to the influence of the then SP government in the state, it was allegedly brushed under the carpet.

The complainant alleged that Khan misused the official letterhead and stamp of the government to malign the image of the BJP, RSS and Jawad at the national and international level.

Khan is presently lodged in Sitapur jail in connection with a number of cases registered against him in Rampur. He is contesting the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls from the Rampur constituency.