The Supreme Court Thursday dismissed three separate pleas of Uttar Pradesh government challenging the bail granted to Samajwadi Party MP Azam Khan, his wife and son in a case of alleged forgery of birth certificate. A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, R Subhash Reddy and MR Shah dismissed the appeal filed by the state government against the October 13, 2020, order of the Allahabad High Court.
“The Special Leave Petitions are dismissed. We make it clear that any observation made in the impugned order shall have no bearing in trial since it was only with regard to granting bail,” the bench said in its order.
The high court had granted bail to Azam's wife Tazeen Fatima and son Mohammad Abdullah in the case on furnishing bonds as per the satisfaction of the magistrate concerned. It had said that Azam Khan will be released from custody after the statement of the "informant" is registered by the trial court.
The three had surrendered in February last year before a Rampur court as their anticipatory bail applications were rejected in connection with the case related to alleged forgery of Abdullah's birth certificate. The high court had directed that the three applicants shall not tamper with the prosecution evidence by intimidating or putting pressure on the witnesses during the investigation or trial.
It had also asked them to cooperate in the trial sincerely without seeking any adjournment. A complaint was lodged by Akash Saxena, a member of Bharatiya Janata Party, alleging that Azam Khan and his wife have got two birth certificates issued for their son from different places, one dated January 28, 2012, from Nagar Palika Parishad, Rampur, and the second dated April 21, 2015, from Nagar Nigam, Lucknow.
The first birth certificate, which recorded his date of birth as January 1, 1993, was used for making passport, etc. and was misused in foreign travel, it alleged. The second birth certificate, which recorded his date of birth as September 30, 1990, was "misused" in government documents, contesting election to Legislative Assembly of the state and in different recognitions given to Jauhar University, it was alleged. Granting the bail, the high court had observed that Abdullah "has not given any affidavit for changing his date of birth before Nagar Nigam, Lucknow" and it was done by his parents. "Hence he is entitled to be released on bail forthwith. Tazeen Fatima deserves to be given the benefit of Section 437 (1) Cr.P.C. being a woman and shall be enlarged on bail," the high court had said.
"Mohammad Azam Khan shall be released on bail only on the date the statement of the informant gets recorded," it had said. It had also noted in the order that the applicants have criminal histories, but in none of the cases they have been convicted by the court as clear from the material on record.
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