Lawyer alleges violence by police against voters in Rampur assembly bypoll, seeks urgent hearing
Dec 07, 2022
New Delhi [India], December 7 : A lawyer on Wednesday mentioned a plea seeking an urgent hearing on the petition in which he has alleged that police have stopped thousands of voters from exercising their right to cast their vote in Rampur bypolls.
A bench headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud asked the lawyer to mention his plea tomorrow morning after the lawyer mentioned the plea before the Supreme Court this evening.
The lawyer told the Supreme Court about police allegedly beating voters in the Rampur Vidhan Sabha assembly constituency. The lawyer alleged that voters were beaten black and blue by the police.
The lawyer claimed to be a voter of the Rampur constituency and said that the thousands of people were allegedly locked in their houses and were not allowed to exercise their voting rights.
The lawyer said that he has filed a petition that he wants to hear on an urgent basis.
The court remarked that all elections have to be given sanctity and asked the lawyer to mention it tomorrow.
The Rampur Assembly seat had fallen vacant after the Rampur District Court sentenced Azam Khan to three years in prison in a 2019 hate speech case over his comments against Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. He was later granted bail and given a week's time to appeal against the sentence. He eventually lost his Assembly membership since his prison term was longer than two years.
The by-election was held in Rampur constituency on December 5 along with Mainpuri, a seat which fell vacant after SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav died on October 10.
