Senior Samajwadi Party leader Mohammad Azam Khan and his son Abdullah Azam were on Monday convicted and sentenced to prison terms of up to seven years by a special MP/MLA court in Rampur in a 2019 case involving the procurement of two PAN cards using different dates of birth, a prosecution officer said.
Special Magistrate (MP/MLA Court) Shobhit Bansal pronounced both father and son guilty after assessing documentary evidence and witness statements, Prosecution Officer Rakesh Kumar Maurya told reporters.
Maurya added that the prosecution would examine the judgment and may consider filing an appeal if it finds the sentence inadequate.
When asked whether Azam Khan and Abdullah would be taken into custody following their conviction, Maurya said, “Yes, absolutely.”
The case was registered in 2019 at Rampur’s Civil Lines police station on the complaint of BJP leader Akash Saxena under IPC sections 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery for cheating), 471 (using forged document), and 120-B (criminal conspiracy).
According to the prosecution, Abdullah obtained a PAN card from the Income Tax Department with the date of birth listed as January 1, 1993, which matched his school and High School records, as well as his State Bank of India account details.
The court held that Abdullah had procured the forged PAN card “in conspiracy with his father” and submitted it for official purposes.
