‘Verdict, not justice’: Azam Khan on jail sentence in fake birth certificate case

Beleaguered Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan on Saturday sharply reacted to a Rampur court’s judgment announcing seven-year jail sentences for him, his wife Tazeen Fatima and son Abdullah Azam Khan in the fake birth certificate case, saying there is a difference between a verdict and justice.

“There is a difference between verdict and justice. This is just a decision,” he told the media after being taken into custody.

The court of magistrate Shobit Bansal awarded the maximum sentence in the 2019 case.

In an FIR launched by BJP MLA Akash Saxena at the Ganj police station in 2019, Khan and his family were accused of obtaining two fake birth certificates from Lucknow and Rampur.

Per the charge sheet, on the document procured from Rampur, Abdullah Azam’s date of birth was January 1, 1993. On the Lucknow document, his date of birth was September 30, 1990.

Abdullah Azam had won the 2022 assembly elections from the Suar constituency. However, following his conviction in a 2008 case of wrongful restraint and assault on a public servant, he was disqualified from the UP Assembly.

Khan later moved the Supreme Court challenging an Allahabad High Court order that refused to stay his conviction in the 2008 case.

On September 26, the court asked Moradabad’s district judge to address the question of the date birth of Khan. Referring to Abdullah’s plea that he was juvenile in 2008, the court noted that the correct date of birth linked to the petitioner was relevant to decide his juvenility.