The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected Uttar Pradesh minister Azam Khan’s “unconditional apology” for his derogatory remarks about the Bulandshahr gangrapes. The apex court has asked the Samajwadi Party leader to file a new affidavit by December 15, reported ANI.

The bench of justices Dipak Misra and Amitava Roy set aside the apology, saying there were clerical errors in the document. On November 18, Khan had told the top court that he would tender an “unconditional apology” for calling the sexual assaults a “political conspiracy”. He had agreed to apologise for his remarks after the apex court asked him to do so.

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“It is a democratic principle that a public servant should not comment on the investigation of crime if it is not related to him,” the court had observed. The senior leader’s remarks about the July 29 incident involving a minor and her mother drew criticism from all quarters.

The 15-year-old girl had approached the Supreme Court in August, seeking an FIR against Khan. After the incident was reported, Khan had said, “We need to investigate whether this is a political conspiracy by opponents who want to defame the government.” The girl had also appealed to the apex court to provide security and rehabilitation to her family.

On November 8, the court had asked the Samajwadi Party leader to make clear his stand on his remark and asked him to file an affidavit by November 17. Advocate Kapil Sibal, who represented Khan in the case, had held that the minister’s statement did not influence the investigation into the case.

The gangrapes took place when the family was travelling to Shahjahanpur to attend a relative’s funeral. A gang of highway robbers had surrounded their car around midnight and forced them all into a nearby field, where they gangraped the girl and her mother. The assailants carried out the attack barely 100 metres from a police post, but the police allegedly took hours to reach the spot.