Rampur23 May. The troubles of senior leader Mohammad Azam Khan and his son Abdullah Azam Khan, who were cabinet ministers during the Samajwadi Party (SP) regime, are not showing any sign of abating. In this series, the MP-MLA Session Court of Rampur has now increased the previously fixed sentence of seven years of Azam Khan in two PAN card cases to 10 years. However, the court has upheld the seven-year jail sentence of Abdullah Azam Khan.

The prosecution had appealed against the decision of the Magistrate Court.

The MP-MLA Sessions Court has given this decision while hearing the special appeal filed by the prosecution to increase the sentence. Earlier, the Magistrate Court of Rampur had sentenced both the father and son to seven years imprisonment and a fine of Rs 50,000 each. But the prosecution had filed an appeal in the Sessions Court demanding further increase in the punishment, calling it inadequate.

The court also increased the fine amount several times

After completion of hearing on the prosecution’s appeal, the court has also increased the financial penalty on Azam Khan and his son manifold. The court has now directly increased the old fine of Rs 50 thousand imposed on Azam Khan to Rs 5 lakh. Whereas the fine imposed on Abdullah Khan has been increased from Rs 50 thousand to Rs 3.50 lakh.

It was a case of use of fake documents

Meanwhile, District Government Advocate Seema Singh Rana said that this increase has been made in the punishments given by the lower court under various sections. He clarified that Mohammad Azam Khan will now have to face a maximum imprisonment of 10 years while Abdullah Azam’s term will remain the same.

According to the District Government Advocate, earlier only a partial fine of Rs 10,000 each was imposed on both of them under various sections. But now under the new calculation, the court has fixed a total fine of Rs 3.5 lakh on Abdullah Azam Khan and Rs 5 lakh on Mohammad Azam Khan. The entire matter was to preparation of two different fake PAN cards and their illegal use at the government level.

The decision came on the appeal of the state government

Both the leaders had already been declared legally guilty by the court in this forgery case. After this, the appeals filed by the convicts against the sentence were completely rejected by the Sessions Court on April 20 this year. After the appeals were rejected, the Uttar Pradesh state government again approached the court with a demand to increase the punishment period considering it less. After a thorough review, the Sessions Court increased the punishment in various sections from the earlier three years’ punishment under section 420 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) to seven years.