A court in Uttar Pradesh’s Rampur on Saturday convicted Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Azam Khan in a hate speech case related to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. He has been sentenced to two years in prison.
The case was registered against him for making derogatory remarks about Aunjaneya Kumar Singh, the then Rampur district magistrate and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath during his election campaign. The complaint was filed by an assistant development officer at Shahjad Nagar police station based on a viral video clip of Khan’s speech.
This is not the first time Azam Khan has faced legal consequences for hate speech. In October 2022, he was convicted and sentenced to three years in jail by an MP-MLA magistrate court, leading to his disqualification from the Uttar Pradesh assembly. However, a sessions court in Rampur overturned the conviction and acquitted him in May of this year.
