RAMPUR: The Uttar Pradesh police on Friday booked Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Azam Khan over an alleged offensive remark made while campaigning for the bypoll election for the Rampur seat in Uttar Pradesh. A probe has been launched too.
A woman named Shehnaaz Begum submitted to the police an audio file of the public meeting at Shuta Khana.
According to the complainant, Azam Khan had in the meeting said, "I was a minister in the last four terms of the SP government and if I would have used the power like this then unborn kids would ask their mothers if they had my permission to take birth."
Based on the woman's complaint, the Ganj police have booked Khan under Section 394(b), 354 A, 353 (A), 504, 505 (2), 509 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 125 of the Representation of the People Act.
Azam Khan allegedly made the statement while campaigning in support of the SP candidate Asim Raja in the upcoming bypolls of the Rampur Assembly Seat.
Several women offended by Khan's statement had lodged a complaint against him with the recorded audio, police said.
SP chief Akhilesh Yadav who was campaigning along with Azam Khan said, "This election is not of Rampur alone. It is the election to bring the (SP) back in power (in future). This is the election for the injustices meted out to Azam Khan."
"There is SP on one side and on the other side there are those who do injustice, humiliate and lodge fake cases," he added.
Incidentally, Azam Khan, on Monday, had kicked up another row by targeting people from the Muslim community supporting the BJP, saying "'Abdul' would now mop the floor for the saffron party after the results of the Rampur Assembly bypolls.
He even took a jibe at the members of the Qureshi community who were being seen on BJP's forums, saying, "Those who have 50-50 cases of cow slaughter pending against them are sitting on the BJP's platform today. Where has BJP's love for cows gone?"
While breaking down repeatedly during his poll speeches, the former minister said: "What have I not done for you? How many atrocities I have suffered just for you... Is this my only fault? Can politics be so dirty? The condition is such that I could not prove my innocence in court despite having everything (all evidence). Jail is waiting for me."
Rampur will go to polls on December 5 along with Mainpuri, a seat which fell vacant after SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav died on October 10.
The Rampur Assembly seat had fell vacant after the Rampur District Court sentenced Azam Khan to three years in prison in a 2019 hate speech case over his comments against Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. He was later granted bail and given a week's time to appeal against the sentence.
He eventually lost his Assembly membership since his prison term was longer than two years.
Azam Khan began his political career by winning the 1980 assembly election on Janata Party (Secular) ticket from Rampur. He has served as a minister in both Akhilesh Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav governments.
The SP has fielded Azam's confidante Asim Raja against BJP's Akash Saxena in Rampur Sadar, a seat which has been represented 10 times by Azam Khan in UP Assembly.
(With inputs from Namita Bajpai)