UP court orders reinvestigation of 2007 case against Samajwadi Party’s Azam Khan

A court in Uttar Pradesh’s Rampur has ordered the police to reopen its investigation against Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan in a 2007 case, in which he was accused of orchestrating the illegal demolition of a factory, The Indian Express reported.

The alleged incident took place in 2006, when Khan was the state urban development minister. The Samajwadi Party leader is currently imprisoned in Sitapur district jail as he has been accused of involvement in a slew of other cases.

The complainant, Afsar Khan, had alleged that district officials demolished his papad factory in 2006 after he declined to pay Rs 5 lakh as donation for the construction of Mohammad Ali Jauhar University. Azam Khan is the lifetime vice-chancellor of the university.

The Samajwadi Party leader was booked on charges of extortion, among others. However, the police later filed a closure report in September 2007, according to The Indian Express.

After Afsar Khan died, his son Zulfekar filed a protest application, claiming that several matters had not been addressed in the investigation.

“While hearing the protest application, the court dismissed the closure report and directed further investigation into the matter,” said Rampur Superintendent of Police Vidya Sagar Mishra.

Since the BJP took power in 2017, Azam Khan has faced at least 83 cases, including land-grabbing, cheating and…

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