Allahabad High Court Stays Azam Khan’s 7-Year Jail Term in Fake Birth Certificate Case

The Allahabad High Court on Friday provided relief to former Uttar Pradesh minister and senior Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan and his family in a fake birth certificate case. The court stayed Khan’s seven-year sentence, though it did not stay the sentences of his wife, Tanjin Fatima, and his son, Abdullah Azam. Nevertheless, all three have been granted bail.

Khan’s advocate, Sharad Sharma, informed the media that while Azam Khan’s conviction has been stayed, the convictions of Tanjin Fatima and Abdullah Azam were upheld.

The case originated on January 3, 2019, when Akash Saxena, now a BJP MLA from Rampur, filed a police complaint alleging that Azam Khan and his wife Tanjin Fatima had procured two birth certificates for their son Abdullah Azam Khan. On October 18, 2023, a sessions court sentenced the three to seven years in prison for forgery.

According to the charge sheet, one certificate issued by the Rampur municipality listed Abdullah Azam’s date of birth as January 1, 1993, while another certificate indicated he was born in Lucknow on September 30, 1990. The trio was found guilty under several sections of the IPC, including 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating), 471 (using a forged document as genuine), 472 (making or possessing a counterfeit seal with intent to commit forgery), and 120(B) (criminal conspiracy).

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Azam Khan was disqualified from the UP assembly last year following a court sentence of three years in jail for a 2019 hate speech case. The veteran politician had won the Rampur Sadar assembly seat for a record 10th time in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. He subsequently vacated the Rampur parliamentary seat, which he had won in 2019. Azam Khan is a 10-term MLA and has also been elected to both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.