Azam Khan, wife, son given 7-year jail term in 2019 fake birth certificate case

Lucknow: Senior Samajwadi Party (SP) leader and party general secretary Azam Khan was on Wednesday sentenced to seven years' imprisonment by a court in Uttar Pradesh's Rampur town in a fake birth certificate case.

The MP/MLA court also sentenced Khan's wife Tanzeen Fatima and son Abdullah Azam to seven years' imprisonment.

It was alleged that Abdullah Azam had furnished the wrong date of birth while filing his nomination papers to contest the assembly poll from Swar seat in Rampur district in 2017. Abdullah Azam had emerged victorious in the poll. His election was later set aside by the court and a by-poll was held in the seat.

A complaint was later lodged against Abdulla Azam by BJP MLA Akash Saxena, who claimed that the former had two different birth certificates. He had also named Azam Khan and his wife Tanzeen Fatima in his complaint.

The prosecution had contended that Abdullah was not eligible to contest the election. It was also alleged that Abdullah Azam had got two different birth certificates - one issued by the Rampur Municipality in which his date of birth was mentioned as 30 September, 1990, and in another the date of birth was mentioned as January 1, 1993.

Reacting to the decision of the court, SP president Akhilesh Yadav said that a conspiracy had been hatched against Azam Khan by some officials who enjoyed the patronage of the BJP. ''Aazam Khan and his family are being targeted... it is part of a broad game plan to terrorise a section of the society,'' Akhilesh said.

Earlier Azam Khan had been found guilty in a hate speech case by the MP/MLA Court (magistrate trial), which sentenced him to two years' imprisonment. The prosecution had contended that Azam Khan had made objectionable remarks against UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath and the district magistrate of Rampur at an election rally.