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In Samajwadi Party, is Azam Khan on a downslide?

Published

9 years ago

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By Mohit Dubey

Lucknow: Is Uttar Pradesh’s ruling Samajwadi Party finally getting tired of its senior leader and minister Mohd Azam Khan?

While the party is yet to pronounce a judgement, public posturing of its senior leaders suggests that it might be running out of patience as far as Khan and his utterances are concerned. Khan, often a source of embarrassment to the state government, has triggered a storm by saying that he will petition the UN against what he said were “atrocities” on Muslims.

He made the statement following the September 28 lynching of a Muslim man in Dadri in western Uttar Pradesh over concocted allegations that the victim ate beef.

While the Samajwadi Party was initially mute on Khan’s comments, senior leaders have now begun to distance themselves from the powerful minister.

Shivpal Singh Yadav, the state’s PWD minister and younger brother of party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, has said that the party and the government have nothing to do with Khan’s UN remark.

“It is his personal statement. The government and the party have nothing to do with it,” he said, with a stamp of finality.

Insiders say the party is worried about the fallout of Khan’s statement, which has triggered criticism from even among sections of Muslims.

Before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections in which the BJP virtually wiped out the Samajwadi Party in the state, Khan made several inflammatory speeches.

With those statements still fresh in memory, the Samajwadi Party now wants to play it safe ahead of assembly elections due in early 2017.

Another hint of changing times within the party structure is the visible bonhomie between Mulayam Singh Yadav and former general secretary Amar Singh, expelled from the party in 2010.

Amar Singh, who has been a bitter rival of Khan in the party, blames the latter for his expulsion. Soon after Amar Singh’s ouster, Khan called him a “pimp”.

On Thursday, not only did Mulayam Singh share stage with Amar Singh at an event but also openly showed his affection for the former party leader.

He held Amar Singh’s hand, took him to the dais and Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav vacated his chair for “uncle Amar” – his first open show of affection in a long time for the former Rajya Sabha member.

It was rumoured that Khan threatened to quit the Akhilesh Yadav cabinet if he was not allowed to petition the UN. His office has denied this.

Khan, the urban development, parliamentary affairs and minority affairs minister, is the de facto number two in the government. He was one of the founder members of the Samajwadi Party and so enjoys a lot of clout.

But he is infamous for his caustic tongue and vitriolic statements. During the Lok Sabha campaign, he called BJP star and now Prime Minister Narendra Modi a “gaddar” (traitor) and claimed that the 1999 Kargil war was won by “Muslim bravehearts in the Indian Army”.

He was expelled many years back when Amar Singh was at the pinnacle of power in the Samajwadi Party. He returned to the party later. On many occasions, he has not turned up at cabinet meetings or key party events. And Khan is known for throwing tantrums.

Is this all going to end?

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What monkey fled with a bag containing evidence in it: Read full story

Published

3 years ago

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May 5, 2022

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The court, generally, considers a person who commit a crime and the one who destroys the evidence, as criminals in the eyes of law. But what if an animal destroys the evidence of a crime committed by a human.

In a peculiar incident in Rajasthan, a monkey fled away with the evidence collected by the police in a murder case. The stolen evidence included the murder weapon (a blood-stained knife).

The incident came to light when the police appeared before the court and they had to provide the evidence in the hearing.

The hearing was about the crime which took place in September 2016, in which a person named Shashikant Sharma died at a primary health center under Chandwaji police station. After the body was found, the deceased’s relatives blocked the Jaipur-Delhi highway, demanding an inquiry into the matter.

Following the investigation, the police had arrested Rahul Kandera and Mohanlal Kandera, residents of Chandwaji in relation to the murder. But, when the time came to produce the evidence related to the case, it was found that the police had no evidence with them because a monkey had stolen it from them.

In the court, the police said that the knife, which was the primary evidence, was also taken by the monkey. The cops informed that the evidence of the case was kept in a bag, which was being taken to the court.

The evidence bag contained the knife and 15 other important evidences. However, due to the lack of space in the malkhana, a bag full of evidence was kept under a tree, which led to the incident.

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