The Samajwadi Party (SP) has thrown its weight behind its senior leader Azam Khan who faces charges of land grab in his Rampur constituency .
Mr. Khan is the Lok Sabha member from Rampur in western U.P.
SP chief Akhilesh Yadav has formed a 21-member internal committee to investigate the allegations of land grab levelled against Mr. Khan, as well as the Rampur administration’s alleged hounding of the party MP.
SP spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary said on Wednesday that “false cases” had been lodged against Mr. Khan.
The party panel, led by the SP’s leader in the Legislative Council Ahmad Hasan, will go to Rampur on July 20 and submit a report to Mr. Yadav in three days.
Meanwhile, Rampur district police chief Ajay Pal Sharma said 13 cases had been lodged against Mr. Khan after complaints by local farmers that he used intimidation and force to illegally occupy their land.
“Investigation is on,” said Mr. Sharma, adding that a former local officer of the police had also been named in the FIRs.
Mr. Khan was booked in June for allegedly occupying public property.
The case was lodged on the complaint of the Naib Tehsildar K.G. Mishra.
Along with Mr. Khan, Registrar of Mohammad Ali Jauhar University in Rampur R.A. Qureshi and varsity Security Officer Alhe Hasan Khan were also named in the FIR.
Mr. Khan is the Chancellor of the varsity and the gram sabha land is allegedly encroached upon by the University.
According to the FIR lodged at Azimnagar police station, the university illegally occupied a 5-hectare parcel of riverine land belonging to the Seegan Khera gram sabha and built an 8-feet high pucca boundary wall around it.
The staff also allegedly obstructed officials from carrying out measurement work at the site when they had visited it on May 25.
The FIR invoked Sections 3, 4 and 332 of The Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act (1984).