Bulandshahr gang-rape case: SC rejects Azam Khan’s ‘apology’

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected an ‘apology’ rendered by Uttar Pradesh Minister and Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan for calling a gang-rape incident “a political conspiracy”.

The SC felt it “was not an unconditional apology”.

On November 17, Khan had offered in the SC to render an unconditional apology to the Bulandshahr gang-rape victims for his controversial remarks.

Khan had told a bench of Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Amitava Roy that he would file an affidavit to the effect that he never intended to hurt the feelings of the victims — a woman and her daughter — and if they felt hurt or insulted, he offered an unconditional apology.

The crime occurred on July 29 night when the 34-year-old woman and her teenage daughter were gang-raped by five to six assailants in Dostpur village on National Highway 91 in Bulandshahr district after waylaying their car carrying six members of the family from Noida.

The court has scheduled the next hearing for December 15.