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Lucknow's Special MP/MLA Court on Wednesday rejected Samajwadi Party's Member of Parliament Mohd. Azam Khan's bail in a 2019 criminal case pertaining to misuse of government letterhead and stamp to malign the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh and Shia cleric Maulana Syed Kalbe Jawwad.

Special Judge, MP/MLA court/ Additional Sessions Judge Harbans Narayan passed the order noting that "it seems that Khan had written letters defaming the Shia cleric with intent to incite hatred and violence between the two communities."

Khan is currently lodged in Sitapur jail in connection with a number of cases including the present one registered under sections 500 and 505 of the Indian Penal Code. 

In the context of the present matter, it is alleged that Khan in the year 2014 had misused his position as a cabinet minister in UP's Akhilesh Yadav government and had got few letters published in the local and national newspapers. 

Allegedly, in those letters, Khan had called the Shia ulema as a Bhartiya Janta Party mole who follows RSS ideology. As per the prosecution case, in one of the letters, Khan had written, "Wearing religious clothes and greeting those who had martyred Babri Masjid and giving bouquets of flowers only suits the religious guru. This religious guru, who said "Modi nar hai to kya dar hai" (If Modi is here, what is the fear), has openly shamed the entire Muslim community by issuing a fatwa to vote for the BJP from the Muqaddas Member (religious forum)."

However, in his bail application, Azam Khan had pleaded that the allegations against him were completely false, fabricated and misleading. Further stressing that he is currently MP of Rampur since the year 2019 and has been an MLA nine times between 1980 and 2017, Khan had questioned the credibility of the case. 

Claiming political enmity, Khan's counsel had argued that even though the alleged incident was of the year 2014 however, the case was registered in 2019. "The First Information Report is obstructed by the Code of Criminal Procedure, Section-468, relating to the period of limitation. There is no justification in the present case to be discussed, as cognizance of the matter cannot be taken after so much time of the incident," he had contended. 

However, the court noted in the order that the complaint in this case, All India Muslim Council's Allama Zameer Naqvi who had lodged the case against Khan in February 2019 at city's Hazratganj police station had given a statement that he had filed one complaint in 2014 also but due to the then government's pressure, the case could not get registered until 2019. 

Case Title: Azam Khan v. State of UP and Another