'Charges are political,' Akhilesh Yadav supports Azam Khan

Lucknow:  Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Monday batted in support of party colleague Azam Khan who is facing several cases and termed the allegations against the Rampur lawmaker as "political".

Yadav asserted that they will fight a legal battle against the incumbent Uttar Pradesh government if required.

"All the allegations are political in nature. The state government is digging up things and leveling false cases against him (Azam Khan). We are with him. If required, we will fight a legal battle against them," he told the media persons here.

Azam Khan and his son Abdullah Azam, a Samajwadi Party legislator, are facing a number of cases, including those of land encroachment and trespassing.

The party chief was slated to visit Azam Khan's constituency Rampur today to lend his support to the parliamentarian and his son, who was recently detained by police.

He, however, said that he postponed his visit to Rampur keeping in view the impending 'Muharram' and 'Ganesh Visarjan'.

"Since there is Muharram and Ganesh Visarjan, I am delaying my program by 2 days. I will send my next program of Rampur on 13 and 14 September to the district administration and I will also give a detail of my movement," he said.

Ahead of his visit, the Rampur district administration had imposed section 144, which prohibits an assembly of more than four people.

"How can you stop anyone from meeting the party leaders and workers? Such a thing is expected from the BJP government. They do not believe in democracy," the former chief minister scoffed.

He further added that the state government is deliberately spreading false narrative as they do not want people to know the "truth".

Yadav said that the district authorities are pressuring people to file false cases.

"Ten to twelve years old cases are being brought up. Do not level false charges on him by coming under the pressure of the government. No one has ever been charged with these many cases ever," Yadav said of Azam Khan.

Besides BJP, Yadav also came down on the Congress and said that the two parties are speaking the same language.

In the span of a few months, multiple cases have been registered against Azam Khan, including that of land grabbing and criminal intimidation.