The Supreme Court on Monday issued a notice to the Uttar Pradesh government and Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan in connection with the petition filed by a minor who was assaulted along with her mother in Bulandshahr, ANI reported. The girl had moved the apex court seeking an FIR against Khan and for the investigation to be transferred to Delhi.

While hearing the girl's plea, the court questioned whether Khan calling the rapes a political conspiracy "defeat principles of constitutional compassion" or amounted to freedom of speech. It also called his statements "objectionable and insensitive". Khan had said Opposition parties in the state could have conspired to defame the government using the gangrape of the teenager and her mother. The top court said such statements by political leaders "create mistrust in investigations and the entire system".

The incident took place when the family was travelling to Shahjahanpur to attend a relative's funeral. A gang of highway robbers surrounded their car around midnight and forced all of them into a field nearby. There, they gangraped the girl and her mother. The assailants carried out the attack barely 100 metres from a police post. However, the police allegedly took hours to reach the spot.