Dual PAN Card Case | Allahabad High Court Grants Bail To Azam Khan, Son Abdullah Azam, Suspends Sentences
With the High Court suspending their sentences and granting them bail, Azam Khan and Abdullah Azam Khan are likely to walk out of jail.
The Allahabad High Court on Thursday suspended the sentence of former Uttar Pradesh Cabinet Minister Mohd. Azam Khan and his son, former MLA Abdullah Azam Khan, in the alleged Dual PAN Card case. The Court also granted them bail.
A bench of Justice Samit Gopal passed the order allowing their applications seeking suspension of sentence. They are likely to walk out of jail.
Earlier, the Court had reserved its judgment on October 15 after hearing Senior Advocates Abhishek Manu Singhvi and NI Jafri, along with Advocate Shashwat Anand, appearing for Azam Khan and Abdullah Azam Khan. The State was represented by Senior Advocate Anoop Trivedi and Advocate Paritosh Kumar Malviya.
Azam Khan and Abdullah Khan have filed criminal revision petitions before the HC challenging their convictions and sentences in the alleged two-PAN-card case.
In November last year, Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Shobit Bansal of the Rampur Court found them guilty under Sections 467, 468, 420, 471 and 120-B of the IPC for the offences of forgery, cheating, using forged documents and criminal conspiracy.
For context, the case pertains to the FIR lodged in 2019 by BJP leader Akash Saxena, now an MLA, alleging that Abdullah had used two PAN cards containing different dates of birth and gained undue benefits through their use.
According to the prosecution, Abdullah initially obtained a PAN card from the Income Tax Department showing 1 January 1993 as his date of birth. This matched the date recorded in his school and High School certificates. That PAN was also used to operate a bank account and file income tax returns.
However, it was further alleged that for the purposes of contesting the 2017 Assembly elections, Abdullah altered his bank passbook and also changed the PAN details and filed the forged copy of the passbook while submitting his nomination papers.
The second PAN recorded his date of birth as 30 September 1990. This alleged fabrication was made so that he could be eligible to contest the polls (minimum age requirement of 25 years). The prosecution argued that Abdullah had done so in conspiracy with his father Azam Khan.
It was also claimed that the bank account mentioned in the nomination papers was neither linked to nor operated through the second PAN.