A Rampur court on Thursday reserved till 4 pm its order on Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Azam Khan's appeal challenging his conviction in a hate-speech case that led to his disqualification from the Uttar Pradesh Assembly.
On October 27, the MP-MLA court in Rampur convicted Mr. Khan in the hate-speech case and sent him to three years in jail.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the Rampur court to hear and dispose of Mr. Khan's application for a stay on his conviction. The apex court was also critical of the speed with which Mr. Khan's disqualification proceedings were done by the Uttar Pradesh Assembly.
The MP-MLA court on Thursday heard the arguments of Mr. Khan's lawyers and government advocates and reserved its order, a lawyer present at the hearing said.
Mr. Khan's lawyers questioned the veracity of the CD, which was presented as evidence in the 2019 case, and sought to annul the conviction order.
The prosecution argued that Mr. Khan never denied that it was his speech and claimed that he was an MP at that time and should have been responsible while making the speech.
After hearing the argument from both sides, the court said it would pronounce its verdict after 4 pm.
