NewDelhi: In a land grabbing case, Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan`s interim bail plea will now be heard by the Supreme Court next week. The apex court, which observed that 137 days have passed but no order has been passed till date, termed the delay as a “travesty of justice” and said it will hear it on Wednesday.
An advocate told a bench headed by Justices L Nageswara Rao that the Allahabad High Court had on Thursday reserved its order on the bail application of Azam Khan in the case.
An apex court bench comprising Justices L Nageswara Rao and B R Gavai noted that Azam Khan has got bail in 86 out of 87 cases, and said it would hear the matter on May 11. “He (Khan) has been out on bail in all matters except one for so long, this is travesty of justice. We will not say anything more. We will hear it on Wednesday,” the bench is quoted as saying by a PTI report.
In his plea, Azam Khan sought the SC to grant interim bail to him in FIR bearing Case Crime No. 312 of 2019, dated 19.09.2019, registered at Police Station Azeem Nagar, Rampur, UP under Sections 420, 467, 468, 471, 447, 201 and 120B of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 and Section 3 of The Prevention of Damage to the Public Property Act, 1984 till the final outcome of Bail Application by the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad.
The plea, filed by advocate Lzafeer Ahmad, earlier informed the SC that the order has been reserved for his bail by the Allahabad High Court in December 2021.
Later, the UP government submitted a fresh application to present some new facts related to the matter and then his bail plea was heard again by Allahabad High Court.
Notably, this is the only case where Azam Khan`s bail application is pending. Khan has been lodged in Sitapur jail since February 2020 last year as many cases are registered against him.
An FIR was lodged against Khan and others for alleged grabbing of enemy property and misappropriation of public money of more than hundreds of crores of rupees, at police station Azem Nagar in Rampur under the IPC and the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act.
It was alleged in the FIR that during partition one Imamuddin Qureshi went to Pakistan and his land was recorded as enemy property, but Khan in collusion with others grabbed the 13.842-hectare plot.
Earlier in February, the apex court had refused interim bail to Khan for campaigning in the Uttar Pradesh elections and asked him to approach the court concerned for expeditious disposal.
The plea filed by Khan had contended that the State has adopted all means available to purposefully delay the proceedings so as to ensure that he is incarcerated during the recently held Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.
Bureau Report
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