BI News, Rampur : A court in Rampur 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. The case dates back to January 3, 2019, when a local resident from Rampur lodged a case alleging that Azam Khan and Tanzeen Fatima through a conspiracy got two birth certificates made for their son Abdullah Azam Khan.
In the Wednesday morning, the court held Azam Khan, his wife and son guilty after which they were taken into custody and after sentencing of punishment trio were sent to jail.
This is the fourth case in the past one year in which Azam Khan has been convicted and the second conviction of former MLA Abdullah Azam Khan. “Later in the day, the court sentenced Azam Khan, his wife Tanzeen Fatima and son Abdullah Azam Khan to seven years imprisonment each in the case,” said joint director, prosecution (Rampur) Shiv Prakash Pandey.
They were convicted under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 467 (forgery of valuable security, will, etc), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged 1[document or electronic record]) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy).
In all, 15 prosecution witnesses were examined by the court, while the defence produced 19 witnesses in the court. Defence counsel Nasir Sultan said they would file an appeal against the judgment.
According to the prosecution, the case dates back to January 3, 2019, when a local resident, Akash Saxena (now BJP MLA from Rampur), lodged a case at the Ganj police station alleging that Azam Khan and Tanzeen Fatima through a conspiracy got two birth certificates made for their son Abdullah Azam Khan.
The first certificate states he was born in Rampur and another said he was born in Lucknow. They got two birth certificates issued for Abdullah, one on June 28, 2012, from Rampur municipality. In this, his place of birth is Rampur and it was issued on the basis of an oath letter by Tanzeen Fatima and Azam Khan. The second one was issued on January 21, 2015, by the Lucknow municipality.
This was issued based on a certificate given by Mary Hospital in Lucknow. Abdullah is accused of using the first one for his passport and for travels abroad, while the second one was used for government records and for getting affiliation with Jauhar University.
Since the BJP came to power in Uttar Pradesh in 2017, 81 cases have been registered against Khan in Rampur on various charges, including land-grabbing, cheating and criminal trespass. In some cases, Azam’s wife Tanzeen Fatima and son Abdullah Azam have been booked.
