Former Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan pleads not guilty in Rs 100 crore defamation case
A magistrate court in Mumbai on Wednesday framed charges against former Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan in a criminal defamation case filed against him in 2017.
Charges have been framed against Azam Khan under sections 499 (defamation) and 500 (punishment for defamation) of the IPC in a Rs 100 crore defamation case.
Magistrate Komal Rajput recorded Khan’s statement, who during the hearing of the case pleaded not guilty. The court adjourned the case to June 15 and asked for evidence, such as video recordings and transcripts of what Khan had said, from the complainant.
During an earlier hearing on November 16, 2022, an exemption application was filed by Azam Khan’s lawyer, which was rejected by the court. Advocate D V Saroj, who represented Sayed Ejaz Naqvi on whose complaint criminal charges were filed against Khan, then moved an application seeking issuance of a non-bailable warrant against Khan. However, the court at that time had not issued the warrant but slated the hearing for January 11.
Naqvi is a member of the Central Waqf Council and has been assigned the responsibility of looking after Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh since September 2016.
Naqvi claims that it was during his visit to Uttar Pradesh that he got to know that the Waqf board had not spent a single rupee for the upliftment of Muslim women in the last couple of decades. On the other hand, Naqvi also claimed to have found that Azam Khan usurped a few properties in his constituency Rampur that belonged to the Waqf board and gave a recommendation to dissolve the UP Waqf Board and that a CBI investigation should be initiated. Azam Khan has denied the allegations of usurping land.
According to Naqvi, Khan had started a campaign against him and called him Mir Jafar (a historically proven traitor), Mir Kasim and an active worker of the RSS. The minister had further alleged that Naqvi was trying to divide the community and was the advocate of terrorists. This, according to Naqvi, maligned his image, who affixed the interviews that Azam khan gave using those derogatory words against him in the Rs 100 crore defamation case.
Speaking outside the court about the case on Wednesday, Khan said, “I do not know the complainant. I cannot give any opinion about what I do not know.”
