Prayagraj: The Allahabad high court on Thursday granted bail to senior Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan and his son Abdullah in the alleged dual PAN card and fake passport case, while suspending their sentences handed down to them by the trial court in Rampur.However, Justice Samit Gopal rejected their plea seeking stay on their conviction.Since their conviction has not been stayed, they cannot contest the forthcoming assembly election because, as per an apex court ruling, a person sentenced to two or more years in prison cannot contest an election. In this case, the trial court had sentenced them to seven years in prison.The court passed the order allowing their application seeking suspension of sentence. Following the grant of bail, they are likely to walk out of jail.Earlier, the high court had reserved its judgment on October 15, which was pronounced on Thursday.Azam and Abdullah had filed criminal revision petitions before the high court challenging their convictions and sentences in the alleged dual PAN card case.In Nov last year, additional chief judicial magistrate (ACJM) Shobhit Bansal of the Rampur court found them guilty under Sections 420 (cheating) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) in connection with offences involving forgery, cheating, the use of forged documents and criminal conspiracy. After convicting the duo, the ACJM sentenced them to seven years in prison.The case relates to an FIR lodged in 2019 by BJP leader Akash Saxena, now an MLA, alleging that Abdullah had used two PAN cards bearing different dates of birth to gain undue benefits. According to the prosecution, Abdullah initially obtained a PAN card from the income tax department showing Jan 1, 1993, as his date of birth. This matched the date recorded in his school and high school certificates. The PAN card was also used to operate a bank account and file income tax returns.However, it was further alleged that, to contest the 2017 assembly elections, Abdullah altered his bank passbook, changed the PAN details and submitted a forged copy of the passbook along with his nomination papers. The second PAN card recorded his date of birth as Sept 30, 1990. The alleged fabrication was intended to make him eligible to contest the polls by meeting the minimum age requirement of 25 years. The prosecution argued that Abdullah had done so in conspiracy with his father.It was also claimed that the bank account mentioned in the nomination papers was neither linked to nor operated through the second PAN card.