Azam Khan walks free after two years in jail, ends protracted legal battle

After nearly two years behind bars, senior Samajwadi Party (SP) leader and former Uttar Pradesh minister Azam Khan was released from Sitapur jail on September 23, marking the end of a long-running legal saga.

The release came after the Rampur court cleared the final pending case against him, filed in 2020 at the Civil Lines police station. The case, involving charges of cheating and related offences, triggered the issuance of his release order, which jail authorities received on September 22. “We have now received the release orders for Azam Khan in all the cases concerned,” confirmed Sitapur jail Superintendent Suresh Kumar Singh.

Khan’s legal troubles stretch back several years. In October 2023, a special court in Rampur sentenced him, his wife Tanzeen Fatima, and their son Abdullah Azam Khan to seven years in prison for allegedly forging Abdullah’s birth certificate, a case dating to 2019. While his wife and son were later granted bail, Khan remained in custody due to multiple other convictions.

A prominent Muslim leader of the SP, Khan first came under legal scrutiny for a hate speech case ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Since then, he has faced over 100 cases, more than 80 of which were lodged after the BJP assumed power in Uttar Pradesh in 2017. Charges against him have ranged from land grabbing and cheating to criminal trespass, with his wife and son also named in several cases.

To date, Khan has been convicted in six cases, with appeals pending in higher courts, and acquitted in six others. All six convictions have since granted him bail. Despite the legal hurdles, he remains a formidable political figure; he and his son were re-elected in the 2022 UP Assembly elections, from Rampur Sadar and Suar constituencies, respectively, though both were disqualified following their convictions.

The release of Azam Khan is expected to rejuvenate the SP’s political strategy in Uttar Pradesh, with supporters hailing it as a victory over a protracted legal onslaught.