HC grants bail to SP leader Azam, his son in ‘dual PAN cards’ case

Justice Samit Gopal rejected their plea seeking stay on their conviction. Following bail in the case, the father-son duo is likely to walk out of jail

PRAYAGRAJ The Allahabad high court on Thursday granted bail to Samajwadi Party leader and former Uttar Pradesh minister Azam Khan and his son Mohd Abdullah Azam Khan, a former legislator, in the dual PAN cards case while suspending the sentences handed down to them by the trial court at Rampur.

As their conviction has not been stayed, they cannot contest the forthcoming assembly polls because, as per apex court ruling, a person having two or more years of sentence cannot contest election. In this case, the trial court had awarded them seven years’ sentence. (File Photo)

However, Justice Samit Gopal rejected their plea seeking stay on their conviction. Following bail in the case, the father-son duo is likely to walk out of jail.

As their conviction has not been stayed, they cannot contest the forthcoming assembly polls because, as per apex court ruling, a person having two or more years of sentence cannot contest election. In this case, the trial court had awarded them seven years’ sentence.

The court observed: “Thus looking to the criminal antecedents of the accused/revisionists, their previous conviction(s), involvement in large number of criminal cases, no justifiable reason is coming forward for entertaining the plea for suspension of conviction. This court does not find it a fit case for grant of stay of conviction to the revisionists Mohd Azam Khan and Mohd Abdullah Azam Khan. The said prayer(s) thus stand dismissed.”

Earlier, the high court had reserved its judgment on October 15, which was pronounced on Thursday.

Azam and Abdullah Khan had filed criminal revision petitions before the high court challenging their conviction and sentence in the alleged dual PAN card case.

In November last year, additional chief judicial magistrate (ACJM) Shobhit Bansal of the Rampur court had pronounced them guilty of forgery, cheating, using forged documents and criminal conspiracy. After convicting the duo, the ACJM awarded a sentence of seven years.

The case stems from an FIR lodged in 2019 by BJP leader Akash Saxena, now an MLA, alleging that Abdullah Khan had two PAN cards containing different dates of birth and gained undue benefits through their use.

According to the prosecution, Abdullah initially obtained a PAN card from the Income Tax Department showing January 1, 1993 as date of birth. This matched the date recorded in his school and high school certificates. This PAN was also used to operate a bank account and file income tax returns.

However, it was alleged that for the purposes of contesting the 2017 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, Abdullah altered his bank passbook and also changed the PAN details and filed the forged copy of the passbook while submitting his nomination papers.

The second PAN recorded his date of birth as September 30, 1990. This alleged fabrication was made so that he could be eligible to contest the polls (which requires a minimum age of 25 years). The prosecution argued that Abdullah had done so in conspiracy with his father Azam Khan.

It was also claimed that the bank account mentioned in the nomination papers was neither linked to nor operated through the second PAN.