Lucknow, Oct 23 (IANS): Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav has strongly condemned the Yogi Adityanath 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.

He termed it 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 on Sunday.

A Rampur court , last week, had convicted Khan, his wife Tazeen Fatima and son in a 2019 fake birth certificate case, and sentenced them to seven years in jail.

Tanzeen Fatima is lodged in Rampur jail.

The SP chief said, "The way the vicious cycle of harassing the family of Azam Khan 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.