Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav has condemned the government's decision to keep senior party leader Azam Khan and his family members in separate jails after the court convicted them in the fake birth certificate case, terming it as a move to "harass" the party leader's family.

While the 75-year-old Azam Khan was shifted to Sitapur district jail, his son Abdullah Azam was moved to Hardoi district jail early Sunday.

A Rampur court on Wednesday convicted Khan, his wife Tazeen Fatima and son in a 2019 fake birth certificate case, and sentenced them to seven years in jail. Fatima is lodged in Rampur jail.

In a post on X on Sunday, the SP chief said, "The way the vicious cycle of harassing the family of Honorable Azam Khan ji is going on is highly condemnable. Separating family members (in jails) is an old practice of those in power and is not justified under any circumstances on the basis of age. Everyone has stood together in his struggle for justice and will continue to do so.”

While leaving Rampur jail on Sunday, Khan had told reporters that "anything" could happen to him and his son and they could be killed in an encounter Earlier, Khan, a 10-time MLA from Rampur, had spent more than two years in the Sitapur jail in another criminal case and was released in May 2022 after getting bail from the Supreme Court.

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