SP leader Azam Khan fears encounter as UP police shift him, son to different jails

A video of Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan being shifted to a different jail from Rampur prison has gone viral as he can be heard saying that anything can happen to him, including “an encounter”.

Azam Khan and his son Abdullah Azam were shifted to different jails from Rampur. “Anything can happen to us; we can get encountered in between our journeys,” Azam said as he was moving towards the police car on Saturday night.

Khan has been shifted to Sitapur district jail and his son to Hardoi district jail, officials said. Both of them stepped out of Rampur jail at around 4.40 am and reached their destinations at around 9am, officials said.

When police personnel asked Khan to sit in the middle of the rear seat of the SUV in which he was being taken to Sitapur jail, the SP leader urged them to let him take the window seat. “I will not be able to sit in the middle,” Khan was heard telling the police personnel, citing back-related problems. The personnel obliged.

A Rampur court on Wednesday (October 18) convicted Khan, his wife Tazeen Fatima and son in a 2019 fake birth certificate case and sentenced them to seven years in prison. They were lodged at Rampur district jail.

Director General of Prisons SN Sabat said the father–son duo was taken to the jails in separate police vehicles with adequate security cover. On the fake certificate case, former DGS (Crime) Arun Saxena said, “Abdullah Azam Khan had two birth certificates. Akash Saxena filed a FIR. After the probe, the chargesheet was filed. The court has given its judgment, and all three people were found guilty. On the conviction point, the court sentenced all three to a maximum of seven years' imprisonment. Approximately a fine of ₹15,000 has also been imposed.”

Khan was earlier lodged at Sitapur jail for almost two years in multiple cases before being released in May 2022, after getting bail from the Supreme Court.

(With agency inputs)