Pathikrit.ChakrabortyLucknow: Senior Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan and his son Abdullah Azam are likely to walk out of Rampur jail on Saturday after the Allahabad high court granted them bail and suspended their seven-year sentences in the dual PAN case. However, jail authorities said they were yet to receive the formal release orders from the court.The relief came after Justice Samit Gopal on Thursday allowed the father-son duo’s plea for suspension of sentence and granted them bail. The court, however, declined to stay their convictions, meaning both continue to remain disqualified from contesting elections.In November last year, additional chief judicial magistrate Shobhit Bansal of a Rampur court convicted Azam and Abdullah under IPC Sections 420 (cheating) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) and sentenced them to seven years’ imprisonment in a case linked to forgery, cheating, use of forged documents and criminal conspiracy.The case stems from a 2019 FIR filed by BJP leader and now Rampur MLA Akash Saxena, who alleged that Abdullah used two PAN cards carrying different dates of birth to secure undue benefits. According to the prosecution, Abdullah had obtained a PAN card showing his date of birth as January 1, 1993, which matched his school records and was used for banking transactions and filing income-tax returns.While granting bail, the high court noted that Azam has been convicted in eight cases, with appeals against two convictions already dismissed. Abdullah has been convicted in four cases.Azam’s counsel, Nizam Pasha, told TOI that both Azam and Abdullah would be released from Rampur jail. He added that Azam will have to be produced before a court again on Nov 2 after police sought his remand in an Enforcement Directorate-related case in which Abdullah is not named.Pasha said Azam has now secured bail in all cases against him, including those in which he had been sentenced.However, Rampur Jail Superintendent Rajesh Yadav said the prison had not yet received any release warrant or related documents from the courts.
