SP leader Azam Khan's 'Y-category' security withdrawn: UP govt
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Rampur: Senior Samajwadi Party leader, who has been in the focus of media attention for the ruling BJP's relentless chase after him, will lose his 'Y-category' security.
The Uttar Pradesh government took this decision to withdraw his security, saying it was not needed as communicated by the security headquarters in Lucknow.
Rampur Additional Superintendent of Police Sansar Singh said they received a letter to this effect .
The 10-time MLA from Rampur will be without his Ý-category security on the basis of this letter.
Singh said under the Y-category security, Khan was given three gunmen and security personnel who were posted at his residence round the clock.
All the security personnel (posted with Azam) have been called back to the police Lines in Rampur, he said.
Khan had won the Rampur assembly seat in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh polls for a record 10th time. After becoming the MLA, he had resigned from the Lok Sabha.
In October 2022, the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly Secretariat announced the disqualification of Khan from the House, a day after a court sentenced him to three years in jail in a hate speech case.
However, in an appeal on the verdict, an MP-MLA sessions court overturned the order and acquitted him of the guilt. Azam Khan has been trying to get his disqualification removed on the basis of this. The legal recourse or an Election Commission decision for this is yet to be clear. Since a new member was elected to his seat following his disqualification, and there is no way to oust such a member from the other than through an election petition being upheld against him, it is not a straightforward case for Khan's return to the MLA position.
(Based on PTI feed)