An charge sheet has been filed on Wednesday against Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan, his wife Dr Tanzeen Fathima and son Abdullah Azam Khan for an alleged case of forging birth certificate in Uttar Pradesh's Rampur.
"Abdullah Azam Khan contested Vidhan Sabha elections with the help of one of these birth certificates," District Government Counsel (Crime) Arun Prakash Saxena told news agency ANI.
"It was revealed during the inquiry that he was not of 25 years at the time of elections. They were presented in court. Charge-sheet has been filed against three accused including Abdullah Azam Khan in this matter," Saxena said.
"Rampur police had already submitted two charge-sheets against the three under sections 420, 467, 468, 471 and 120b (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC)." The District Government Counsel said that Dr Tanzeen Fathima was physically present at the hearing, while Azam Khan and Abdullah Azam Khan were present through video conference.
He added that an investigation into the matter is underway.
Earlier on August 10, the Supreme Court had granted bail to Samajwadi Party (SP) leader, Azam Khan and his son Abdullah Khan in the alleged birth certificates forgery case.
Here's all you need to know about the case:
Azam Khan and his son Abdullah Khan are accused of forging the latter's age on his educational certificates for him to participate in the 2017 elections.
A complaint was lodged by Akash Saxena, a member of Bharatiya Janata Party, alleging that Azam Khan and his wife have got two birth certificates issued from different places, one dated January 28, 2012, from Nagar Palika Parishad, Rampur, and the second dated April 21, 2015, from Nagar Nigam, Lucknow, for their son.
Abdullah Azam Khan was elected as an MLA from Suar seat from Rampur, Uttar Pradesh in 2017. He was disqualified from the membership of the State Legislative Assembly for being less than 25 years of age as on the date of the election, in December 2019.
He was found guilty by the Allahabad High Court for submitting a forged birth certificate to the election body to contest elections.
The first birth certificate, which recorded his date of birth as January 1, 1993, was used for making passports, etc and was misused in foreign travel, the complainant alleged. While the second birth certificate, which recorded his date of birth as September 30, 1990, was "misused" in government documents for contesting election to Legislative Assembly of the state and in different recognitions given to Jauhar University, it claimed.
(With inputs from ANI)
