Bulandshahr gangrape remark: Supreme Court accepts Azam Khan's 'heartful remorse'

Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan submitted an unconditional apology to the Supreme Court on Thursday for calling the Bulandshahr gangrape case “a political conspiracy”. The Supreme Court accepted his apology saying he has expressed “sincere and heartful remorse”, PTI said. Khan had stirred a controversy  in July by alleging that a “political conspiracy” might be involved in the gangrape of a Noida-based mother and daughter near Bulandshahr. “To get power, politicians can get down to any level. They can murder people, trigger riots, kill innocent people, so the truth has to be found out,” he had said. Khan had also said that it was an attempt to malign the Uttar Pradesh government. [caption id=“attachment_3157380” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Azam Khan. PTI[/caption] His comments had attracted a lot of public ire and had forced the court to issue a notice to Khan on 29 August. The case was then handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation. However, as _Firstpost_ reported earlier, despite the notice Khan didn’t make a personal appearance in the court. The Supreme Court had then asked the CBI to issue a fresh notice to Khan on the same. In August, eight armed men stopped a family car on the Delhi-Kanpur highway and dragged the members to nearby sugarcane fields and raped the teenager and her 38-year-old mother as other members of the family was tied up. The mother-daughter duo was ravished barely 100 metres away from the police post as the offenders snatched cash to the tune of Rs 36,000 and some jewellery from the victims. On 18 November, the Uttar Pradesh Minister had expressed that he was ready to unconditionally apologise for his comments on the incident. However, the apex court had rejected Khan’s affidavit on 7 December stating that it was not an unconditional apology. A bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra had also cited errors and had asked the Samajwadi Party leader to submit a fresh affidavit on the same. However, the apex court had rejected Khan’s affidavit on 7 December stating that it was not an unconditional apology. A bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra had also cited errors and had asked the Samajwadi Party leader to submit a fresh affidavit. The case was slated for a hearing on Thursday.   With inputs from PTI