A court in Uttar Pradesh’s Rampur on Wednesday pronounced a seven-year prison sentence to Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Azam Khan, his wife Tanzeem Fatima and their son Abdullah Azam Khan after finding them guilty in the fake birth certificate case.

The three were taken into custody after the verdict.

The matter pertains to the issuance of Abdullah Azam Khan’s birth certificate twice.

Abdullah Azam Khan is accused of obtaining a passport and foreign tours based on a first birth certificate and using a second certificate for government-related purposes.

Both the certificates were issued through fraudulent means and as part of a pre-planned conspiracy.

A first birth certificate, issued on June 28, 2012, by Rampur Nagar Palika, showed Rampur as Abdullah Azam Khan’s birthplace.

In January 2015, a second birth certificate issued showed Lucknow as his birthplace.

BJP MLA Akash Saxena had filed a case against Abdullah Azam in 2019 for having two birth certificates.

Azam Khan and his wife Tanzeen Fatima were also named as accused.

The development comes as a fresh setback to Abdullah Azam, who was disqualified as a member of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly earlier this year after being convicted and sentenced to two-year imprisonment in a 15-year-old case.

The Supreme Court, last week, refused to give an interim stay on Abdullah’s conviction in the case.

A case was lodged against Abdullah Azam Khan and his parents under sections 420, 467, 468 and 471.

Wednesday’s judgment is yet another case where Azam Khan and his son have been convicted. Both were convicted in a 2019 hate speech case by a court in Rampur. Earlier, Azam Khan and Abdullah had represented the Suar Assembly constituency in Rampur district before being disqualified due to a number of cases against them.

(This article has been published via a syndicated feed)