On Tuesday, the High Court of Allahabad granted bail to senior Samajwadi Party leader and Lok Sabha MP from Rampur Azam Khan, his wife Dr Tazeen Fatima and son Mohd Abdullah Azam Khan in a fake birth certificate case pending in Rampur district.

However, while allowing bail application of all the three, justice Siddharth directed that Abdullah & his mother Tazeen shall be released immediately but Azam Khan will only be released on bail after the statement of the first informant/complainant (the person who had lodged the FIR) in the case is recorded by the Trial Court.

According to the petitioners’ lawyer, the offence of obtaining a fake birth certificate of Abdullah would not travel beyond the purview of Section 23 of the Registration of Births & Deaths Act, 1969, which provides that any information given for the purpose of being inserted in any register of births & deaths, which is known or believed by person giving information to be false, shall be punished with fine, which may extend to Rs. 50.

The State Govt opposed the bail lea on the ground that the fake birth certificate was used by Abdullah to contest the state election & his father & mother helped him in obtaining the fake certificate & if released on bail, the applicant will tamper with witnesses. 

It is to recall that last year an FIR was lodged by one Akash Saxena at Ganj police station of Rampur, alleging that Azam Khan & Tazeen have got two birth certificates issued from two places, one dated January 28, 2012, from Nagar Palika Parishad, Rampur & second dated April 21, 2015, from Nagar Nigam, Lucknow, regarding birth of their son Abdullah.

According to him, both the birth certificates were fabricated & were used for personal gains by accused persons by way of organized fraud.

Later, the High Court of Allahabad, while allowing an election plea, had on Dec 16, 2019, set aside the election of Abdullah from Suar assembly constituency of Uttar Pradesh’s Rampur district & declared it as void. The Court had held that the applicant wasn't competent to contest election as per his birth certificate. The Court had found that on the date of filing of nomination paper on January 25, 2017, & on the date of declaration of result of legislative assembly election of Suar assembly constituency of district Rampur on March 11, 2017, Abdullah was less than 25 years of age & thus wasn't qualified to be chosen to fill the seat in legislature of the state in terms of Article 173(b) of the Constitution of India.

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