Derogatory remarks against Jaya Prada: Azam Khan appears in Moradabad court

Khan was on Thursday convicted by the Rampur MPMLA court and awarded three years of imprisonment in the 2019 case.

Samajwadi party leader Azam Khan on Tuesday appeared in an MP/MLA court here in connection with two cases, including the 2019 case in which he is accused of making derogatory remarks against actor-politician Jaya Prada.

A case was lodged against the SP leader and his supporters for blocking the Moradabad-Haridwar highway in Chajlait in 2008 after they were stopped by police for checking his vehicle on the Moradabad-Haridwar highway.

In 2019, another case was registered against him for making derogatory remarks against Jaya Prada at an event organised to honour Khan after he defeated the actor-turned-politician, a former party colleague, in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Jaya Prada had contested the elections on a BJP ticket.

Khan's advocate Shahnawaz said that the Moradabad court accepted his appeal to be present with facts in his defence and fixed November 3 and 4 for hearing the 2008 and 2019 cases. Khan will appear on the next two dates, his counsel said. Khan was on Thursday convicted by the Rampur MP/MLA court and awarded three years of imprisonment in the 2019 case. This led to his disqualification from the Uttar Pradesh assembly.

The Representation of the People Act says that anyone sentenced to imprisonment of two years or more shall be disqualified ''from the date of such conviction'' and remain disqualified for another six years after serving time in jail.

Khan did not interact with newspersons and left for Rampur soon after Tuesday's court proceedings in Moradabad.

Earlier, local SP workers had said that Khan was not feeling, so he would neither stay in Moradabad nor talk to anybody.

Khan's son and SP MLA Azam Abdullah and many other supporters accompanied him to the court.