Delhi Waqf Board Money Laundering Case: Court Summons AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan on ED's Plea

A Delhi court on Tuesday directed AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan to appear before it on April 20 in response to an application filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against him for allegedly evading the agency’s summons in a money laundering case related to “illegal recruitment” by the Delhi Waqf Board.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Divya Malhotra took cognisance of the ED’s complaint and said there was sufficient ground to summon Khan in response to the ED’s plea.

The federal probe agency alleged that Khan has aggravated his role from a witness to an accused in the case by filing an anticipatory bail plea and running away from the investigation.

The ED, represented by Special Public Prosecutor Simon Benjamin, also stated in its application that the agency was not able to conclude the probe against Khan because he is not presenting himself before it.

Khan, the Okhla MLA of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), was not named as an accused in a recent charge sheet filed by the ED in the case.

The agency has named five entities in its prosecution complaint (the ED’s equivalent of a charge sheet), including three suspected associates of Khan — Zeeshan Haider, Daud Nasir and Jawed Imam Siddiqui.

The agency had, after conducting raids on premises linked to Khan and some others in October last year, claimed that the AAP MLA had acquired “huge proceeds of crime” in cash through illegal recruitment of staff to the Delhi Waqf Board and invested those for purchasing immovable assets in the name of his associates when he headed the Board.

The searches were conducted in the case related to alleged illegal recruitment of staff and illegitimate personal gains made by the accused by way of unfairly leasing out Waqf Board properties from 2018 to 2022 when Khan was its chairperson, the ED has said.

The money-laundering case stems from an FIR lodged by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and three Delhi Police complaints.

Several “incriminating” materials in the form of physical and digital evidence were seized during the raids, indicating Khan’s involvement in the offence of money laundering, the agency has claimed.