HC junks Azam Khan's plea to quash chargesheet

The Allahabad High Court on Friday dismissed a plea by senior SP leader and Rampur MP Azam Khan, seeking quashing of a chargesheet indicting him along with his legislator wife and ex-MLA son for allegedly committing forgery in securing a fake birth certificate for the latter.

Khan, his wife Tanzim Fatima, an MLA from Rampur assembly seat and son Mohd Abdullah Azam Khan, a former MLA unseated by the high court from Suar assembly seat for fighting polls on the basis of a fake birth certificate, had jointly moved the high court seeking quashing of the chargesheet filed against them by Uttar Pradesh police.

Dismissing their plea, a bench of Justice Manju Rani Chauhan said a case of forgery is prima facie made out against the three accused and there is no reason to quash the proceedings.

Along with his wife and son, Khan had moved the high court after the Rampur's court of additional chief judicial magistrate had issued summonses to them, taking cognisance of the chargesheet filed by the police against them.

The police had filed chargesheet indicting them for the penal offences of forging valuable security (S 467) for the purpose of cheating (S 468) and using a forged document as genuine (S 471) of the Indian Penal Code respectively.

The trio had moved the high court seeking annulment of the chargesheet as well as the summonses issued against them by the Rampur's magisterial court.

According to the chargesheet filed by the police, the actual date of birth of Azam Khan's son was January 1, 1993, and he was below 25 year of age at the time of filing nomination for the assembly election.

He, however, allegedly in collusion with his mother and father had secured a fake birth certificate from Rampur Nagar Palika Parishad depicting his birth date as September 30, 1990, entitling him to fight the assembly election.

The case in the matter was lodged at the Ganj Rampur police station by a Rampur resident, Akash Saxena.