Senior Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Azam Khan and his son, former MLA Abdullah Azam Khan, were sent back to jail for seven years’ imprisonment in a dual PAN card forgery case by the court of Rampur.
The sentence was pronounced on Monday, 17th November, and the court also imposed fines and ordered their immediate custody. Abdullah, who was out on bail earlier, was also taken into custody after the pronouncement of the sentence.
#WATCH | Rampur, UP | Samajwadi Party's Azam Khan, son Abdullah Azam Khan get 7-year jail term in dual PAN cards case
— ANI (@ANI) November 17, 2025
Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan says, "They thought I was a convict, so I was sentenced to jail…" pic.twitter.com/j4HmTq3Ncf
According to officials, Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Shobit Bansal announced the judgment, giving both Azam Khan and his son seven years of imprisonment with a fine. The prosecution said they were convicted under sections 467, 468, 420, 471, and 120-B of the Indian Penal Code, which deal with forgery, cheating, and conspiracy. Nine prosecution witnesses and eighteen defence witnesses were examined during the trial. Their lawyer, Nasir Sultan, said that they would soon file an appeal against the verdict.
The case began with an FIR registered on December 6, 2019, by Akash Saxena, who is now a BJP MLA. As per the case details, Abdullah used two different PAN cards that had different dates of birth. One PAN card showed his birth date as January 1, 1993, and was linked to his educational certificates. It was used for opening bank accounts and filing income tax returns.
However, while filing his nomination papers for the 2017 Assembly elections from the Suar constituency, Abdullah reportedly used a different PAN card showing his date of birth as September 30, 1990. The prosecution said he changed his bank passbook to match the new PAN card and submitted that document with his nomination papers. This was done to hide the fact that he was not eligible to contest the election that year because of his age.
BJP MLA Akash Saxena said that the case was related to the use of two PAN cards for personal gain. Soon after the court’s decision, SP president Akhilesh Yadav commented on social media that those who misuse power and do injustice ultimately face the consequences.
Azam Khan, a ten-time MLA from Rampur Sadar and a former Cabinet minister, is one of the most well-known Muslim leaders of the Samajwadi Party. He has faced several legal troubles in recent years. Records show that over 81 cases have been filed against him since 2017, after the BJP came to power in Uttar Pradesh. These include charges of land grabbing, cheating, vandalism, trespassing, hate speech, and criminal intimidation.
This is not the first time Azam Khan has been convicted. Including the current case, he has now been convicted in seven cases, six in Rampur and one in Moradabad. He has filed appeals against all these judgments. He was released on bail from Sitapur jail in September this year after spending nearly two years behind bars.
Earlier on 18th March, Azam Khan was also sentenced to seven years in jail in the Dungarpur case related to a property dispute in the Rae Bareilly district. The case was about the construction of Asra Awas shelters in Dungarpur during the SP government, where some residents already owned houses.
In 2016, the houses were reportedly demolished, and people claimed corruption by officials. In this case, the Rampur MP/MLA court convicted Azam Khan along with contractor Barkat Ali, retired CEO Ale Hasan, and former mayor Azhar Ahmad Khan. The court also fined Azam Khan Rs 5 lakh.
The same day, the Allahabad High Court rejected the plea of Azam Khan’s Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar Trust, which challenged the state government’s decision to cancel the trust’s land lease in Rampur. Because of this, Azam Khan’s Rampur Public School, built on the leased land, will now have to be shut down.
Over the past two years, Azam, his wife Tanzeen Fatima, and son Abdullah have also been convicted in several other cases, including those related to fake birth certificates, hate speeches, and obstruction of traffic.
