Rampur (UP)/IBNS/UNI: Senior Samajwadi Party (SP) leader and former cabinet minister Mohammad Azam Khan was on Wednesday acquitted by an MP-MLA court in a three-year-old hate speech case in which he was sentenced to three years imprisonment by a lower court, the defence counsel said.

Azam's counsel Jubair Ahmed said that the MP-MLA court of Additional District Judge (ADJ) Veer Singh set aside the order of the lower court and acquitted the SP leader.

He claimed that the court held the evidence on the basis of which Azam was convicted by the lower court as invalid.

Azam Khan along with his son and former MLA Abdullah Azam was present in the court at the time of the order.

Azam was disqualified from membership of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly after being convicted by the lower court in October last year.

On Oct 27 last year, the MP-MLA court in Rampur held Azam Khan guilty of giving a provocative speech against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the then District Magistrate of Rampur and sentenced him to three years imprisonment along with a penalty of Rs 25,000.

The MP-MLA court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate-I Nishant Man later granted bail to Azam and gave him one week time to appeal in the higher court.

Azam was accused of making indecent comments against PM Modi and the then DM during an election rally in Milak during the Lok Sabha polls.

Agriculture Development Officer (ADO) Anil Kumar Chauhan lodged an FIR against Azam in this connection at Milak police station in 2019.

At that time ADO Chauhan was posted as the in-charge of the video monitoring section. Azam Khan resigned from the Lok Sabha after being elected to the UP assembly.