LUCKNOW: Giving some respite to Samajwadi Party MLA Azam Khan, the Allahabad High Court granted him bail in a case related to enemy properties on Tuesday.
The Enemy Property Act deals with properties left behind in India by people who opted for Pakistani and Chinese citizenship after the wars of 1965 and 1971.
However, the senior SP leader will still not be able to step out of Sitapur district jail where he has been incarcerated since February 2020. In fact, a fresh case was lodged last week against the SP MLA for allegedly producing fake documents to secure recognition for one of the schools owned by him in Rampur.
Azam Khan has been booked in over 80 cases related to land grabbing, intimidation, extortion, and petty theft lodged against him in Rampur.
Recently, after a complaint in an old case, the police filed a charge sheet against the SP leader in court. On the basis of the charge sheet, the warrant has been sent to Sitapur.
Another case related to an enemy property deal for his Mohammad Ali Jauhar University project and the High Court had reserved its order on Azam Khan's bail application last week.
An FIR was lodged against Khan and others for allegedly grabbing enemy property and misappropriating public money running into hundreds of crores. It was also alleged in the FIR that during the partition, one Imamuddin Qureshi went to Pakistan and his land was recorded as enemy property. However, Khan grabbed the 13.842-hectare plot in collusion with others.
The Supreme Court had on Friday expressed displeasure over the delay in hearing the MLA's bail application in a land grabbing case, calling it "a travesty of justice".