Azam Khan, son awarded 7-year jail term in dual PAN card case

The Special MP-MLA Court in Rampur on Monday sentenced Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan and his son Abdullah Khan to seven years of imprisonment for the offence of possessing two PAN cards with different Dates of Birth (DOB). Delivering the verdict, Special Magistrate (MP/MLA Court) Shobhit Bansal held both father and son guilty after examining documentary evidence and witness testimonies, Prosecution Officer Rakesh Kumar Maurya told reporters.

After the Special Court’s decision in a packed courtroom, the father-son duo was taken into custody. The prosecution succeeded in proving in court that Abdullah Khan, a former MLA, indulged in the forgery to qualify for contesting an election and Azam Khan was part of the larger conspiracy. The prosecution said that Abdullah was underage and did not meet the requirement for a minimum age to contest an election. To increase his age in records he used a fake DOB and got a second PAN card made. The Special MP-MLA Court held Abdullah Khan guilty of getting a second PAN card made with a wrong date of birth to increase his age on record, making him eligible to contest election. According to the complaint, Abdullah was issued a passport on January 10, 2018. The passport lists the date of birth as September 30, 1990 but his educational certificates say January 1, 1993.

Earlier, the Supreme Court on November 6 dismissed a plea filed by Abdullah Khan seeking the quashing of an FIR against him for allegedly using forged documents to obtain a passport. A Bench of Justices M.M. Sundresh and Prashant Kumar Mishra, upholding the Allahabad High Court’s order that had refused to quash the FIR, said: "We are not inclined to interfere. However, we make it clear that the trial court is at liberty to decide all the issues without being influenced by the order of the High Court." The Allahabad High Court had dismissed Abdullah Khan’s plea to quash the FIR, observing that the offences of obtaining a forged birth certificate and later using it to secure a passport were "distinct and different acts".

Abdullah Khan was earlier convicted in another case for allegedly procuring a false birth certificate using fabricated documents. He argued that since the passport was issued on the basis of the same forged certificate, the subsequent prosecution amounted to double jeopardy.