Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Nov 10: Azam Khan, the leader of the Samajwadi Party, filed an application seeking a stay of his conviction in the 2019 hate speech case, but the court in Uttar Pradesh’s Rampur District today dismissed it. In accordance with the Apex Court’s directive to decide Khan’s application on Thursday alone, the Court made the ruling today.
It should be mentioned that Khan was given a 3-year prison sentence after being found guilty by a Rampur Court last month in a 2019 hate speech case. In one instance, he made offensive comments during the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections against Yogi Adityanath, the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, and Aunjaneya K. Singh, the then-DM of Rampur.
He had now appealed his conviction before the Rampur Sessions court, which granted him temporary release and scheduled a hearing for his request for a stay of judgement for November 15.
However, the UP Legislative Assembly declared the Rampur Vidhansabha seat, which had previously been held by Khan, vacant the day after his conviction [due to his disqualification under the Representation of Peoples Act 1951.
Following that, on November 6, the ECI also released a press statement announcing the Rampur bye-election schedule. Bye-election official gazette notification was supposed to be published today, following the schedule (November 10).
