India Tomorrow
NEW DELHI—Granting interim bail to Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan in an alleged cheating case, the Supreme Court on Thursday directed him to move a competent court to seek regular bail within two weeks.
The court invoked Special powers under Article 142 to grant him interim bail. The Article 142 of the Constitution provides special powers to the SC, to do “complete justice” between the parties, where at times law or statute may not provide a remedy to the involved parties.
However, the interim bail will continue till Azam Khan’s regular bail plea is decided, clearing the way for his release.
The case is related to alleged land grabbing and forgery related to Rampur Public School, which is run by Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar Trust. Khan happens to be lifetime president of the Trust.
A Bench of Justices LN Rao, BR Gavai and AS Bopanna granted the interim bail on a petition moved by Khan. The Bench had earlier expressed concern regarding the delay in passing order on Khan’s bail application by the Allahabad High Court.
“This is a fit case to exercise the powers under Article 142…”, Justice Gavai read out the operative portion of the order.
A prominent Muslim face of the Samajwadi Party and among its strongest leaders, Khan had a host of cases filed against him after the BJP came to power in UP. But, he still managed to win the 2019 Lok Sabha polls from Rampur and the 2022 State assembly polls from jail.
Meanwhile, the Uttar Pradesh government informed SC that the investigators in the case were threatened while Khan’s testimony was being recorded.
But Khan’s lawyer senior advocate Kapil Sibal informed the court that Azam Khan has been in prison for the past two years and thus the question of him threatening anyone does not arise.
Khan, who had surrendered to Rampur police in February 2020 along with his wife Tazeen Fatima and son Abdullah Azam in a cheating case, is currently lodged in Sitapur jail.
While Tazeen Fatima was released after 10 months of incarceration, Abdullah Azam was released after two years in January 2022. However, Khan could not secure his release because he was having as many as 81 cases registered against him. His close friends and family members say the cases are politically motivated.
Despite being in jail, Azam Khan won the Rampur Sadar assembly seat for the 10th time in March 2022, defeating his BJP rival by over 55,000 and Congress candidate Nazab Kazim Ali Khan who lost his deposit.
Abdullah Azam also won from Suar seat.
