My own people contributed to my destruction: Azam Khan

‘My own people contributed to my destruction’, said senior Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan, who was released from the Sitapur jail on Friday after the Supreme Court granting him an interim bail. Khan has been in jail for around 26 months

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AMN / LUCKNOW

Senior Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan walked out of the Sitapur Jail on Friday morning after spending 26 months in judicial custody, a day after the Supreme Court granted him interim bail in a cheating case. The nine-term MLA was booked in 89 criminal cases after the ruling BJP came to power in 2017.

At the jail gates, Khan had an emotional reunion with sons, Abdullah and Adeeb, apart from SP MLAs Ashu Malik and Mohd Faheem. The four accompanied him in his SUV.

Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party-Lohia (PSP-L) chief Shivpal Yadav, who had left for Sitapur from his Lucknow residence at 5 am, welcomed Khan at the jail gates and escorted him to his SUV.

Minutes after his release, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav took to Twitter to welcome him. “Hearty welcome to senior SP leader and MLA Azam Khan on his release from jail. This bail order of the Supreme Court has given a new yardstick for justice. Strongly believe he will be acquitted in all remaining false cases and litigations. Lies can last for some moments but not for posterity,” Yadav tweeted in Hindi.