Prayagraj. Allahabad High Court has given big relief to senior Samajwadi Party leader and former minister Azam Khan and his son Abdullah Azam in the case of possessing two PAN cards. The court has suspended the sentence of both and approved their bail applications. A single bench of Justice Samit Gopal gave this decision. During the last hearing, after hearing the arguments of both the sides, the court had reserved its decision.
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Azam Khan and Abdullah Azam had filed criminal revision petitions challenging the sentence and conviction awarded by the trial court. They had sought interim relief pending the final disposal of their petitions, seeking stay of conviction, suspension of sentence and grant of interim bail.
The High Court accepted the bail applications of Azam and Abdullah and ordered suspension of the sentence. However, the court has rejected the demand to stay the conviction. In this case, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, NI Jafri and advocate Shashwat Anand appeared on behalf of Azam Khan. At the same time, senior advocate and Additional Advocate General Anoop Trivedi presented arguments on behalf of the state government.
According to the prosecution, Azam Khan and Abdullah Azam are accused of making and using second PAN cards mentioning different dates of birth. It is also alleged that a second PAN card was allegedly used in the election nomination papers. Earlier, on October 14, the High Court had directed to link the cases of Azam Khan and Abdullah Azam with the criminal revision petition related to Dr. Tanzim Fatima vs. State of Uttar Pradesh.