Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan, wife and son sent to judicial custody in forgery case
They were accused of forgery in the birth certificate of Azam Khan’s son.
A court in Uttar Pradesh’s Rampur district on Wednesday sentenced Samajwadi Party MP Azam Khan along with his wife Tazeen Fatima and son Abdullah Azam to judicial custody after rejecting their bail application in a forgery case, PTI reported. They are accused of forgery in Abdullah Azam’s birth certificate.
Azam Khan is a Lok Sabha MP from Rampur, his wife is an MLA from Rampur Assembly seat, and their son was an MLA from Suar until being disqualified by an Allahabad High Court order in December.
In January last year, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Akash Saxena had filed a complaint accusing Azam Khan and Tazeen Fatima of helping their son get two fake birth certificates – one from Lucknow and another from Rampur. Abdullah Azam had faced allegations that he gave a wrong date of birth when he filed his nomination papers for the 2017 Assembly elections. The Rampur police then registered a first information report.
Circle Officer Rampur (City) Vidya Kishore Sharma said Azam Khan and his family were arrested after they surrendered at the court of Additional District Judge VI, The Indian Express reported. “They had come to surrender at the court and were presented in front of the judge,” he told the newspaper. “They have been sent to jail till March 2.”
He added that the police are also trying to remand Azam Khan in other cases. A total of 86 cases, ranging from land grabbing, and stealing buffaloes, goats and books, are currently pending against him.
The next hearing in the case is scheduled for March 2. Azam Khan and his family have been charged under Sections 420, 467, 468 and 471 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 121(1)A of the Passport Act, the Hindustan Times reported.
In September, the court had issued summons to all three lawmakers on the basis of the charge sheet filed by Rampur police, in which they were charged with forgery and cheating. Later, it issued non-bailable warrants against them for failing to appear before the court, and declared them absconders.
In December, the Allahabad High Court had set aside Abdullah Azam’s win from the Suar Assembly seat in Rampur after he was accused of being under-age in a petition moved by Nawab Kazim Ali Khan.