The Uttar Pradesh Police booked Samajwadi Party leader Abdullah Azam Khan, son of former minister Azam Khan, for allegedly assaulting a man at a polling centre in the Rampur district and hindering his right to vote on Wednesday.
The police have also named three journalists – Vikas Singh, Ankur Pratap Singh and Shahbaz – in the first information report (FIR). The case was filed based on a complaint by a Rampur resident named Nadeem Khan.
The incident allegedly occurred on December 5, the day of the Rampur Assembly constituency’s by-elections.
The complaint made by the complainant claimed that while he was on his way to the polling place, Khan, the three journalists, and a group of followers stopped him and demanded to see his identification. He stated that they physically and verbally assaulted him when he refused to hand them his documents.
Nadeem Khan claimed that “they threatened me and stated that if I come to vote, I will end up losing my life.”
When he questioned the Samajwadi Party leader about why he was preventing others from voting, Nadeem asserted that the man also threatened his friend Meherban Ali.
Furthermore, Abdullah Khan and his supporters allegedly frequently entered the voting booth on election day, according to Nadeem Khan. He said that the police were unable to verify the IDs of individuals entering the voting box because of the swarm of supporters.
The police have used the Indian Penal Code’s (IPC) provisions against rioting, lying about an election, intentionally insulting someone to cause a disturbance, criminal intimidation, intentionally inflicting harm on a public worker, and disobeying a public servant’s order.
It is worth noting that Rampur by-poll was necessitated by Khan’s disqualification as an MLA on account of his conviction in a hate speech case. The results of the by-poll will be declared on December 8.
