Azam Khan, wife, son given 7-year jail in fake birth certificate case; taken into custody

Azam Khan. File Pic

A court on Wednesday convicted Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan, his wife Tazeen Fatima and son Abdullah Azam in a 2019 fake birth certificate case, and awarded them a seven-year jail term.

"After the court verdict, the trio was taken into judicial custody and will be sent to the jail from the court itself," said Arun Parkash Saxena, a former District Government Counsel, who represented the prosecution.

MP-MLA court magistrate Shobit Bansal awarded the three the maximum seven-year sentence.

The FIR in the case was lodged by BJP MLA Akash Saxena at the Ganj police station in Rampur on January 3, 2019. It was alleged that Khan and his wife helped their son obtain two fake birth certificates: one from Lucknow and another from Rampur.

According to the charge sheet, in the certificate issued by the Rampur municipality, Abdullah Azam's date of birth was mentioned as January 1, 1993. The other certificate showed he was born in Lucknow on September 30, 1990.

Abullah Azam, who won from the Suar constituency in the 2022 assembly election on a SP ticket, was already convicted by a Moradabad court in a 2008 case of wrongful restraint and assault on a public servant to deter him.

Two days after being convicted and awarded a two-year jail term in February this year, Abdullah Azam was disqualified from the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly. He went to the High Court, seeking a stay of the conviction which was refused.

Under the provisions of Representation of the People Act (RPA), 1951, anyone sentenced to imprisonment of two years or more shall be disqualified 'from the date of such conviction' and remain disqualified for another six years after serving time in jail.