Samajwadi Party’s strongman, former Uttar Pradesh cabinet minister Azam Khan was finally released from Sitapur Jail on 23 September 2025. After spending about two years behind bars, his release is also considered important for the changing politics of Uttar Pradesh.

In October 2023, Azam Khan, his wife Tankeen Fatima and son Abdullah Azam Khan were sentenced to seven years on charges of forgery in the birth certificate of Abdullah. However, he got bail in May 2024, but in other cases, he could not come out of jail due to the lawsuit. There are more than 100 cases against him- out of which more than 80 were recorded after 2017, when the Bharatiya Janata Party government was formed in Uttar Pradesh. The allegations include cases such as land grab, fraud, criminal encroachment, damage to public property, use of inflammatory speech.

Quality bar case important

In some of these cases, he was convicted, some were acquitted in and many of the appeals are currently pending in other courts. The most popular quality bar was the land possession case, in which after getting bail from the High Court, the way for his release was cleared.

Azam Khan was accused that while being a minister in the year 2013, he illegally got the quality bar located in the Civil Lines area of ​​Rampur illegally got his wife and son in the name of his wife and son. In 2019, this case was registered on the complaint of owner Gagan Arora. Due to this case, his release was stuck. In this case, in May 2025, Rampur’s MP-MLA court rejected his bail application. He was relieved from Allahabad High Court in September 2025 and it was possible to come out of jail after the final order on 18 September.

This is not the first time Azam Khan has been in jail for a long period. From February 2020 to May 2022, he was in jail for about 27 months. Then he went to jail in October 2023.

VIDEO: Azam Khan came out in jail in this style, sight of sitting on the front seat in the car

10 times MLA, 1 time Lok Sabha MP

Azam Khan has been considered a Muslim face and powerful leader of the Samajwadi Party for a long time. He has been a 10 -time MLA, 1 time Lok Sabha MP, 1 time Rajya Sabha MP and Cabinet Minister in the UP government and Leader of Opposition in the Assembly.

His fort was so strong in Rampur politics that from 1980 to 2022, his family continued to win from this region. However, in the December 2022 by -election, the BJP won the Rampur seat considered to be his stronghold. However, political experts claim that the impact of Azam Khan is still intact in Rampur, Moradabad and the surrounding Muslim dominated areas. This is the reason that his release is considered very important before the 2027 UP assembly elections.

What is a political future?

Even during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, there was a news of differences between Akhilesh and Azam Khan about the ticket partition (ST Hasan – Ruchi Veera). His release from jail is going to stir in the politics of Rampur, Moradabad and Muslim -dominated constituencies of Rampur, Moradabad and western Uttar Pradesh amid rumors of differences with Azam Khan’s SP leadership and turning to another political party before the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. Their political influence around Rampur and Moradabad can be important in elections. Chandrashekhar Azad, the head of Azad Samaj Party and MP from Nagina, met Azam Khan in Sitapur Jail and described the meeting as private.

However, there was speculation that Azad formed an alliance with Khan for the 2027 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections. There is a discussion that recently BSP supremo Mayawati has met Azam Khan’s wife and former MP Dr. Tanzin Fatima. It is also discussed that Priyanka Gandhi is also in touch with Azam family and she has recently had a phone conversation with Azam Khan’s family.

After these claims, speculation is intensifying that Azam Khan can prepare for a big political step before 2027. He will live in SP or will form a new front or go to another party, it will tell this time.