The Allahabad High Court prohibited the passing of the final order in the consolidated case of 12 elements registered against former MP Azam Khan and several other accused in the forced eviction case.
Justice Dinesh Pathak passed the order on a petition filed by co -accused Mohammad Islam alias Islam contractor and others. The court directed to hear a fresh hearing on the matter on July 3 and clarified that the hearing will continue in the subordinate court. However, no final order will be passed till the hearing on July 3.
The case is related to the alleged incident of October 15, 2016, in which unauthorized structure named Yatim Khana (Waqf No. 157) was demolished. In this case, 12 elements were registered at Kotwali police station in Rampur district between 2019 and 2020.
Initially, separate cases were conducted regarding these objections, which were included on August 8, 2024 by the Special Judge (MP-MLA) of Rampur district. All the accused involved in the case are accused of robbery, infiltration and criminal conspiracy under the then Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The court gave this decision on June 11 after hearing the plea of the petitioners’ counsel and said that the Subordinate Court is determined to dispose the case within June, which creates apprehension about procedural fairness. The petition filed by Azam Khan and his partner Virendra Goyal is to be heard today (Wednesday) in an incident related to the case.
The petition challenged the subordinate court’s decision on May 30, 2025, in which the request for calling the major witnesses including Sunni Central Waqf Board Chairman Zafar Ahmed Farooqui and the request to present videographic evidence of the 2016 eviction incident was rejected. The petitioners argued that Farooqui would be able to prove their absence at the scene from this evidence.
