A Special Court for MPs and MLAs in Rampur has sentenced senior Samajwadi Party leader Mohammad Azam Khan and his son, former MLA Abdullah Azam, to seven years’ imprisonment in a case involving forgery, impersonation, and falsification of official records to obtain multiple Permanent Account Numbers (PAN).

Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate of the MP/MLA Court, Justice Shobit Bansal, on Monday found the accused guilty under Sections 420, 467, 468, 471, and 120-B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The court held that the duo procured two different PAN cards reflecting conflicting dates of birth. The PAN cards allegedly enabled Abdullah to derive unlawful electoral and administrative benefits.

Soon after the pronouncement of the verdict, Azam Khan was taken into custody from the Rampur court premises and transported to the district jail under heightened security.

The case was registered on the basis of an FIR registered by BJP leader Akash Saxena in December 2019 at Rampur’s Civil Lines police station. As per the FIR, Abdullah Azam had initially obtained a PAN card with January 1, 1993, as his date of birth, corresponding with his school certificates and bank records.

However, while contesting the 2017 Assembly elections from the Suar constituency, Abdullah allegedly submitted another PAN card with a different date of birth (September 30, 1990).

This altered PAN card was allegedly used while filing nomination papers along with a modified bank passbook, and the acts were carried out in concert with his father, thereby attracting the application of criminal conspiracy. It enabled him to overcome the age-related disqualification applicable under electoral law.

After going through the documentary evidence, financial records and witness testimonies, the magistrate found the accused guilty and sentenced them to seven years of imprisonment, treating the sentence under Section 467, which carries a maximum punishment extending to life imprisonment, as the principal punishment.

The sentences imposed under the various provisions were directed to run concurrently, with the period already spent in judicial custody deducted from the total term.

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