Samajwadi Party supremo Akhilesh Yadav on Monday postponed his visit to Rampur to September 13-14 in view of prohibitory orders imposed in the city. The state government has issued prohibitory orders due to Muharram and Ganesh Chaturthi.Akhilesh Yadav alleged that the district magistrate was working at the behest of the Yogi Adityanath-led state government. He defended his party leader Azam Khan calling actions against him in the alleged land grab case as 'false'.

Addressing a press conference at the party office on Monday, the SP chief, who was scheduled to meet party leader Azam Khan's family on Monday, claimed that the administration has said his visit could result in riots in Rampur.

Azam Khan lands in trouble after police registers 27 FIRs over land grab for university

"I have to visit Rampur after meeting party workers in Sitapur, Shahjahanpur and Bareilly. I have postponed the visit by two days. It has been rescheduled to Sep 13-14. No one can stop us from meeting people in a democracy," Yadav told reporters. He said the administration has told the party that prohibitory orders were imposed in Rampur in view of Muharram and Ganesh Chaturthi due to community sensitivity. However, Yadav alleged that the Rampur district magistrate was "working at the behest of government as his tenure is going to end and he wanted an extension". He backed Rampur MP Azam Khan saying "Fake cases were lodged against Azam Khan under pressure of the local administration. I and the entire Samajwadi Party is with him and will fight at all levels and also explore ways for the legal fight.

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Slamming the Yogi government, Yadav said that cases against Azam Khan were "politically motivated" cases and are being lodged against to finish off the university founded by him. "They dont want the university to run and students to have a bright future. Political fores do not want change in the lives of people," he added. "In the political history, such a large number of cases have never been lodged against anyone. FIRs are being registered in matters that are 10-12 years old under pressure," Yadav alleged.

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Cases against Azam Khan

As many as 27 FIRs have been lodged against Samajwadi Party leader and Lok Sabha MP Azam Khan in the last one month on the allegation that he grabbed farmers' land for his university in Rampur, police said. Khan, who was a cabinet minister in Uttar Pradesh during the Akhilesh Yadav-led regime, is the founder and Chancellor of the Mohammad Ali Jauhar University which came into being in 2006. Largely, he said, these cases have been registered under Indian Penal Code sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 342 (wrongful confinement), 447 (criminal trespass), 389 (putting a person in fear of accusation of offence, in order to commit extortion), 506 (criminal intimidation). "Since July 11, over two dozen farmers have approached the police with allegations of encroachment of their land for the university. We have registered 27 FIRs in these cases and investigations are underway," Superintendent of Police, Rampur, Ajay Pal Sharma told PTI.

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