FIR against Azam Khan over 'defamatory remarks' against Ambedkar

The police have registered the second FIR in a week against Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan, this time for allegedly making defamatory remarks against Dalit icon B R Ambedkar two years ago.

The FIR was registered on a complaint by Ambedkar Mahasabha general secretary Amarnath Prajapati at Lucknow's Hazratganj police station Tuesday, police said.

Khan reacted that the ruling BJP was using his name to fight elections. "I am the item girl of the BJP," he said.

Prajapati alleged that during the inauguration of Haj House in Ghaziabad in 2016 Khan made an objectionable statement against Ambedkar, terming him someone who "grabs land".

"All over the state, there are statues of a person whose finger seems to say that it owns not only the plot in which it stands but also the plot towards which it is pointing," the SP leader allegedly said.

Earlier, on October 17, Rajya Sabha MP Amar Singh lodged an FIR against the controversial SP leader at the Gomti Nagar police station for allegedly threatening his daughters with acid attack.

Singh claimed Khan made the threat against him and his 17-year-old twins during an interview to a television channel.

Commenting on the latest FIR, Khan suggested that the Bharatiya Janata Party, which heads the government in Uttar Pradesh and at the Centre, was playing politics.

"I am the item girl of the BJP. They contest all the elections on my name. The last assembly election was fought on my name and the same is the case with the coming Lok Sabha elections," he said in Badaun.

The present state of affairs is such that I do not remember how many cases have been filed against me and where, he told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Badaun.

I keep getting summons and warrants," he said.

Khan said he has no property in his name and only one bank account.

Visiting Badaun district to attend a function organised by a Muslim organisation, Khan urged bringing the Dalits, the backwards and the deprived together to defeat communal forces.

He mocked the BJP over the issue of construction of a Ram temple at the disputed Ayodhya site.

'Do whatever you want but don't misguide the country," he said.