After Azam, his son Abdullah Khan disqualified as UP MLA

It is the second time that Abdullah – the younger son of former UP minister Azam Khan who himself was dismissed from the Assembly – has lost his Assembly membership.

Lucknow | Updated: 15 February, 2023 8:37 pm IST

Abdullah Azam Khan has been disqualified from the Assembly for the second time.

Samajwadi Party legislator Abdullah Azam Khan on Wednesday met the fate of his controversial father Azam Khan as he was disqualified from the UP Legislative Assembly for a second time following his conviction in a criminal case.

It is the second time that Abdullah – the younger son of former UP minister Azam Khan who himself was dismissed from the Assembly – has lost his Assembly membership.

In a notification released on Wednesday, the UP Legislative Assembly said that the Suar MLA’s membership was dismissed due to a court ruling that awarded him a two-year jail term and ₹3000 in fine.

However, the Moradabad court has granted bail to the father-son duo.

On Monday, a local court in Moradabad pronounced the quantum of punishment in a 15-year-old case.

Abdullah and his father Azam Khan were found guilty under Section 353 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for staging a dharna on a state highway on January 29, 2008, after their cavalcade was stopped by the police for verification following an attack on a CRPF camp in Rampur on December 31, 2007.

In 2020, Abdullah was dismissed after the Allahabad High Court ruled that the vote which sent him to the Assembly for the first time in 2017 was invalid.

The high court had held that Abdullah was not eligible to contest that election as he was below 25 years of age when he filed his nomination papers as the Samajwadi Party candidate from the Suar constituency.

With his disqualification, the Suar Assembly seat in Rampur has fallen vacant, the notification said.

In October last year, Azam Khan – the embattled SP leader who was once a powerful minister in Uttar Pradesh – was dismissed as an MLA from Rampur Sadar constituency after his conviction in a hate speech case. Khan later challenged his disqualification order in court but received no respite.