Court asks police to file progress report in sedition case

A local court has directed the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) to submit a progress report in a sedition case against senior Samajwadi Party leader and Uttar Pradesh cabinet minister Mohd Azam Khan by June 20.
The court in its order on June 11 said that though two years have passed after it rejeted the final report filed by police, it has not been informed of the result of the investigation into the case.
The application was moved by one Ujjawal Gupta to register an FIR against the minister for his controversial comments on Kashmir.
Gupta's counsel Arvind Parmar said that on December 21, 2010 while talking to reporters Azam, who was not the minister at that time, had allegedly made the remarks.

Parmar said that on this Gupta attempted to lodge a complaint with police and when no action was taken he moved an application in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate on January 3, 2011 to lodge a case against the SP leader.
Considering it to be a serious issue, the then CJM Pawan Pratap Singh directed police to lodge a sedition case against Azam on January 18 and it was lodged the same day.

The investigating officer filed a final report in the case on May 5, 2012, against which Gupta moved a protest application on Januart 8, 2013.
On May 24, 2013, the court rejected the final report and said that it was false and was based on baseless facts to get desired results.

It directed a re-investigation asking police to obtain original recording from media and make it a part of investigation.
On June 9 this year, the applicant's counsel moved a plea in the court drawing its attention that even after two years the investigating officer has not filed a charge sheet/report.
On June 11, CJM Puneet Kumar Gupta had directed the SSP to ask the investigating officer to submit a progress report by June 20.