Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan (Express Photo)While Rampur police continue to lodges cases against Azam Khan and his aides, they have also started probing the extended family members of the Samajwadi Party MP, like his elder brother, sister and nephews. Azam’s 75-year-old sister, Nikhat Akhlaq, who is a retired government teacher and treasurer of Jauhar Trust that runs the Jauhar University, was questioned by the police on Friday. Azam’s elder brother, Shareef Khan, who is a retired engineer, and his son Bilal were booked in a case of attempt to murder on Wednesday with Azam as co-accused.
The case against Shareef and his son was lodged on a complaint of Mohammad Ahmed, who claims to be a neighbour of Azam and his brother.
SHO of Ganj police station, Narendra Tyagi, said the case against Azam, his brother and nephew has been lodged under IPC sections 307 (attempt to murder), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 386 (extortion by putting a person in fear of death or grievous hurt), 452 (house-trespass after preparation for hurt, assault or wrongful restraint).
“On August 28, around 5 pm, when I was returning after offering namaz, I was stopped by Shareef Khan and his son Bilal and they asked me to sell my house to Shareef. When I refused, they started to abuse me and pushed me to the ground and assaulted me with an intention to kill me. Then, my brother, Mohammad Ismail, arrived at the spot and helped me escape. The father-son duo then left… They then came to my house 20 minutes later with two SP workers and assaulted me again. Bilal took out a countrymade pistol and told me either to get the house registered in their name or give Rs 50 lakh in cash. I got scared and asked for 5-6 days to do so,” the complaint filed by Ahmed stated.
Besides Shareef Khan, Bilal and Azam, the FIR has also named Azam’s son and Swar MLA Abdullah Khan and one unidentified person.
SHO Tyagi said that the row was over Ahmed’s house which Azam and his relatives wanted to usurp. “The complainant claims he bought the house in 1992 and has been getting threats from Azam and his family members since 2013,” said the SHO.
Meanwhile, Azam’s sister, Nikhat Akhlaq, was questioned in connection with the alleged irregularities in the functioning of the Trust that runs the Jauhar University. “She was allowed to go. She has denied her involvement in any wrongdoing,” said a police officer.
The Jauhar Trust, of which Azam is the chairman, is accused of financial irregularities.
Meanwhile, three more cases were lodged against Azam and his associates over alleged eviction of people living in Yateemkhana Basti that belonged to the Waqf Board in 2016. Basti had at least 50 houses.
The cases were lodged on complaints from former residents of the basti, who claimed that the land was allotted to them by the Waqf Board, but they were forcefully made to vacate by Azam and his associates.
On Friday, police had lodged four cases against Azam and his associates for alleged eviction. The total number of the cases lodged over eviction of the people living in Yateemkhana Basti against Azam has now reached seven over the last three days.
Along with Azam, his PRO Fashat Shanu and the then Circle Officer Aaley Hasan are also named in the FIR. As many as 81 cases have been lodged against the Rampur MP since April.
