The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the Uttar Pradesh government to reply to Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan’s plea on the delay in the hearing of his bail petition, PTI. Khan has been booked in a land grabbing case, PTI reported.
For the second time in less than a week, the Supreme Court pulled up the Adityanath government about proceedings against Khan who has been accused in 89 cases. He has been in jail for more than two years.
On Friday, the Supreme Court had described the delay in hearing Khan’s bail plea in the Allahabad High Court as a “travesty of justice”. This was after the High Court reserved its verdict on Thursday and Khan moved the Supreme Court complaining about the delay in proceedings.
Following the Supreme Court’s comments, the Allahabad High Court granted interim bail to Khan in the land grabbing case on Tuesday. But, he was not allowed to walk out of jail as the police served him a notice in a fresh case, his lawyer told PTI.
On Wednesday, a Supreme Court bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao, BR Gavai and AS Bopanna asked the Uttar Pradesh government to file a reply to the plea about the delay in the hearing. The judges will hear the matter next on May 17.
“What is this? Why not let him go?” the judges asked the counsel for the Uttar Pradesh government. “He has been in jail for two years...One or two cases is okay but it cannot be in 89 cases. Whenever he gets bail, he is again sent to jail in some other matter.”
In the land grabbing case, Khan has been accused of illegally acquiring a 13.84-hectare plot in Uttar Pradesh’s Rampur district for the construction of the Mohammed Ali Jauhar University. The land was categorised as enemy property under the Enemy Property Act, 1968 after its former owner, a man named Imamuddin Qureshi, went to Pakistan during Partition.
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