Azam, wife Tanzeen, son Abdullah sentenced to 7-year imprisonment in forgery case

Speaking to mediapersons before being taken into custody, Azam Khan said: “Insaaf aur faisley mein farq hota hai. Yeh faisala hua hai… Kal se hi purey shehar ko malum tha. Aapke chotte channel par chalne laga tha itni saza honi hai. Kya kahein ish se jyada. Yeh bhi maloom tha kitni saza honi hai… Aapne judgment dekh bhi liya hoga. Humein aaj pata chala. (There is a difference between justice and verdict. A verdict has been announced. Since yesterday everyone in the town knew. Small channels of yours were telling the quantum of the sentence. What should I say more than this… You must have seen the copy of the judgment. I came to know about it today).”

This is the fourth case in the past year in which Azam Khan has been convicted, and the second conviction of his son and former MLA Abdullah Azam Khan. Azam Khan’s counsel, Nasir Sultan, said they would file an appeal against the judgment in the higher court.

Reacting strongly to the conviction, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav said his party leader was being harassed for being a Muslim. “Mohammad Azam Khan saheb aur unke pariwar ko nyay milega. Unke khilaf badi saazish hui hai, bade sharyantra hue hain. Aur saazish-sharyantra ka parinam hai ki aaj unhe iss tarah ki saza ka saamna karna pad raha hai. Aur unhone university banayi. BJP ke logon ka kehna hai, BJP ke andar jo log hain, un tak ne kaha ki Azam Khan saheb Musalman hain, isliye iss tarah ki saza face karni pad rahi hai (Mohammad Azam Khan and his family will get justice. A big conspiracy has been hatched against him. And the result of the conspiracy is that he is facing such a punishment. He set up a university. People in the BJP, the party insiders, say that because he is a Muslim, he is facing such a punishment),” Akhilesh told mediapersons in Kannauj.

In a post on X, Akhilesh wrote: “The public is watching and understanding the game that is being played to scare an entire section of society by targeting Azam Khan-ji and his family. Some selfish people do not want people who promote education to remain active in society… The oppressors should remember (that) the public also has a court against injustice.”

According to the prosecution, the case dates back to January 3, 2019, when resident Akash Saxena, who is now the BJP MLA from Rampur, got a police case registered alleging that Azam Khan and his wife Tanzeen Fatima got two birth certificates made for their son Abdullah Azam Khan.

“They got two birth certificates issued for Abdullah, one on June 28, 2012, from Rampur municipality. In this, his place of birth is shown as Rampur and it was issued based on an oath letter by Tanzeen Fatima and Azam Khan. The second one was issued on January 21, 2015, by the Lucknow municipality. Here, Abdullah’s birthplace is marked as Lucknow. It was issued based on a certificate given by Mary Hospital in Lucknow,” said the prosecution officer.

Abdullah is accused of using the first birth certificate to get a passport and for travelling abroad, while the second one was used for government records and for getting affiliation with Jauhar University.

On February 26, 2020, all three surrendered before the court and were granted bail.

Since the BJP came to power in Uttar Pradesh in 2017, 81 cases have been registered against the senior SP leader in Rampur on various charges, including land-grabbing, cheating and criminal trespass. In some cases, Azam’s wife Tanzeen Fatima and son Abdullah Azam have been made co-accused.

In July, a Rampur court sentenced Azam Khan to two years of imprisonment in a hate speech case lodged during the 2019 Lok Sabha election campaign. The court had granted bail to him. In February, a Moradabad court sentenced Khan and his son Abdullah Azam Khan to two years imprisonment in a 15-year-old case in which they were booked for blocking traffic after their vehicle was stopped by police for checking. The court, however, granted bail to both of them. Abdullah was disqualified from the Assembly.

In October last year, Khan was sentenced to three years of imprisonment by a Rampur court in a hate speech case, also lodged during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The case related to the alleged use of improper language against Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and others. The conviction led to his disqualification from the Assembly and resulted in a bypoll that was won by the BJP.

Later, in May, Rampur’s session court acquitted Khan in the case. The government has filed an appeal against his acquittal in the Allahabad High Court and it is still pending.