Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan was released from Uttar Pradesh’s Sitapur jail on Friday morning after 27 months, PTI reported. The Supreme Court had granted him interim bail on Thursday.
Khan, the MLA from Uttar Pradesh’s Rampur, has been accused of illegally acquiring a 13.84-hectare plot in the 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.
After the Supreme Court order on Thursday, the investigating officer in the case, Gajendra Tyagi, filed an application in a Rampur court seeking the Khan’s police custody for two days, according to The Times of India. The officer told the court that the police needed to recover a fake rubber stamp that Khan allegedly used to get a no-objection certificate from local authorities from the project.
However, the court rejected the plea.
After his release, Khan visited the house of former party MLA Anoop Gupta before leaving for his hometown, according to PTI. Khan and Gupta had reportedly been constantly in touch after the former was imprisoned.
Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Friday said he “heartily welcomes” Khan on his release.
“With the bail order, the Supreme Court has set new standards of justice,” he said on Twitter. “We have complete confidence that he will acquitted in all the other cases against him. Lies only last for moments, not eras.”
Khan has been accused in 89 cases.
On May 6, the Supreme Court described the delay in hearing of Khan’s bail plea in the Allahabad High Court as a “travesty of justice”.
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