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Azam Khan is currently lodged in the Sitapur prison (File)

Rampur, UP:

A special sessions court here on Saturday acquitted Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan and his son Abdullah Azam in a 2019 attempt to murder case while upholding their seven-year sentence in a four-year-old forgery case.

Special Sessions Judge Vijay Kumar granted Azam Khan, his son and two other relatives relief in the attempt to murder case for lack of evidence, Senior Prosecution Officer Amarnath Tiwari said.

It was alleged in the case that Azam Khan, Abdullah Azam and two of their relatives had threatened a neighbour to vacate a plot of land, following which police had filed a charge sheet against them under sections of the IPC, including 307 (attempt to murder) and 323 (causing grievous hurt), Tiwari added.

However, in the other case registered in 2019, the court rejected a plea by the SP leader, his wife Tazeen Fatima and their son against the seven-year imprisonment awarded to them by a lower court on October 19.

The trio had appealed against the judgement in the fake birth certificate case in the special sessions court.

“On the completion of the hearing on the appeal, Special Sessions Judge Vijay Kumar rejected the plea, stating that there were no legal mistakes in the judgement given by the lower court,” Tiwari said.

Azam Khan is currently lodged in the Sitapur prison, while Abdullah Azam and Tazeen Fatima are lodged in the Hardoi and Rampur prisons, respectively.

Azam Khan is a 10-term MLA and was also elected to the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.

Abdullah Azam, who won from the Suar constituency in the 2022 assembly election on an SP ticket, was in February convicted by a Moradabad court in a 2008 case of wrongful restraint and assault on a public servant to deter him.

Two days after being convicted and awarded a two-year jail term in the case, Abdullah Azam was disqualified from the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly. He moved the high court, seeking a stay of the conviction but was refused.

Under the provisions of the Representation of the People Act (RPA), 1951, anyone sentenced to imprisonment of two years or more shall be disqualified ‘from the date of such conviction’ and remain disqualified for another six years after serving time in jail. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)