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Mohammad Azam Khan, a founding member of the Samajwadi Party (SP), walked out of Sitapur Jail on Tuesday, September 23, after nearly 23 months of incarceration. His release has ignited a fresh debate about his political future and its larger implications for Uttar Pradesh politics.

Azam Khan is one of the most prominent Muslim faces in the SP and a central figure in the Muslim politics of Uttar Pradesh. Over the years, he has faced more than a hundred legal cases, with many of them filed after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in the state in 2017. 

On September 18, a bench of the Allahabad high court granted him bail in the last pending case related to the Quality Bar land dispute, clearing the way for his release from Sitapur Jail.

His time in jail has been marked by a series of legal entanglements. In 2023, a Rampur MP-MLA court convicted Azam Khan, his wife Tanzeen Fatima and their son Abdullah Azam Khan in a case involving the use of forged birth certificates. The court sentenced all three to seven years in prison for forgery and related offenses. 

Following their convictions, Tanzeen Fatima and Abdullah Azam Khan were granted bail by the Allahabad high court. Despite this, Azam’s release was delayed due to other pending cases against him.

For decades, Azam Khan has been a towering figure in Uttar Pradesh politics. He was among the key leaders who helped Mulayam Singh Yadav build the SP, and for nearly 30 years, he remained instrumental in consolidating Muslim support for the party. His family’s political dominance in Rampur district has made them an enduring force, despite the many legal battles they........

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