HC grants bail to Azam Khan, his wife and son

PRAYAGRAJ The Allahabad high court on Tuesday granted bail to Samajwadi Party MP Azam Khan, his wife Tazeen Fatma and son Abdullah Azam Khan in a case of alleged fake birth certificate pending in Rampur district.

The court said while Abdullah Azam Khan and his mother may be released immediately but Azam Khan will only be released after the statement of the first informant (complainant) in the case was recorded by the court.

Justice Siddharth passed the order in the bail applications filed by Azam, his wife and son. The three had surrendered in February before a Rampur court as their bail applications were rejected in connection with the case related to alleged forgery of Abdullah’s birth certificate.

Last year, an FIR was lodged by one Akash Saxena at Ganj police station of Rampur, alleging that Azam Khan and Tazeen Fatima had got two birth certificates issued from two places— one dated January 28, 2012, from Nagar Palika Parishad, Rampur, and second dated April 21, 2015, from Nagar Nigam, Lucknow, regarding the birth of their son Abdullah Azam Khan. As per the petitioners, the offence of obtaining fake birth certificate of Abdullah Azam would not travel beyond the purview of Section 23 of the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969, which provides that any information given for the purpose of being inserted in any register of births and 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 government opposed the bail application on the ground that the fake birth certificate was used by Abdullah Azam to contest the state election and that his parents helped him in obtaining the fake certificate and if released on bail the applicants may influence the witnesses in the case.