Abdullah Azam Khan, son of Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan, has received a setback from the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has refused to quash the case of use of fake documents to obtain a passport. Abdullah had approached the Supreme Court to get the FIR quashed, but the court said that it would not interfere in the matter.
Justice MM Sundaresh and Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra have upheld the order of Allahabad High Court. The bench said, ‘Why should we interfere? You have presented your arguments in the trial court. Now let that court decide. You should have faith in the court.
The matter pertains to an FIR registered in the Civil Lines police station of Rampur, Uttar Pradesh. The case is pending in the special MP/MLA court of Rampur. Abdullah Azam Khan is accused of giving wrong date of birth and obtaining passport through fake documents. Sections 420, 467, 468 and 471 of IPC have been imposed on them. These sections are imposed for fraud, making and using fake documents. In some of these sections, there is a provision of punishment of up to 7 years and in some up to 10 years.
According to the FIR, Abdullah’s date of birth in his school records is January 1, 1993, but in his passport application he has given his date of birth as September 30, 1990. For this, fake documents (birth certificate) were presented. Charges were framed in this case in the lower court on September 09, 2021.
In October this year, the Supreme Court had rejected a similar petition by Abdullah and his father Azam Khan. That petition was related to the alleged use of fake birth certificate for PAN card. It is alleged that Abdullah used this PAN card and fake birth certificate to file nomination for the assembly elections.
In the case of use of fake documents for passport, Abdullah had argued in the High Court that these documents were the same which were used to obtain PAN card. Two trials should not be conducted for the same document, but the High Court had refused to quash the proceedings.
The High Court had said in its order, ‘The same fake birth certificate was allegedly used to obtain PAN card and passport. Still, both the crimes are different. The High Court had also said that the accused could have given this argument earlier also, but he deliberately delayed filing the petition.