New Delhi. ED’s interrogation of Aam Aadmi Party MLA Amanatullah Khan is going on continuously. ED’s interrogation of Amanatullah Khan is going on for about 9 hours today. Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Amanatullah Khan on Thursday appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for questioning in a money laundering case. The Supreme Court had last week refused to consider the anticipatory bail plea of the AAP MLA in the case related to alleged irregularities during Khan’s chairmanship in the Delhi Waqf Board, after which he has now been interrogated.
The Supreme Court had directed him to join the investigation on April 18. Before entering the ED office, he claimed in front of journalists that when he was the chairman of the Waqf Board, he followed the rules and acted after taking legal opinion and as per the new Act (for the board) that came in 2013. The money laundering case against Khan is related to a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) FIR and three complaints by Delhi Police.
The ED has claimed that Khan earned huge sums in cash through illegal recruitment of employees in the Delhi Waqf Board and invested the amount to buy immovable properties in the name of his associates. ED has also raided Khan’s premises. The ED had alleged in a statement that there was illegal recruitment of employees in the Waqf Board and that Khan made illegal profits by wrongly leasing out the properties of the Waqf Board during his chairmanship (2018-2022).
The ED said Khan earned huge sums in cash from the said criminal activities and invested this cash in purchasing various immovable properties in Delhi in the name of his associates. It said that several incriminating materials were seized during the raid, indicating Khan’s role in money laundering. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had alleged that the investigation was one of the false cases that were being filed against its party leaders.
The Supreme Court, in its order dated April 15, had refused to grant any relief to Khan and expressed displeasure over the MLA not attending the ED summons. The bench told his lawyer, ‘What has happened… summons were issued again and again and you did not appear. This is wrong. How can we forgive this?’ The bench told his lawyer. The agency filed a chargesheet in the case in January and named four people, including three alleged associates of Khan – Zeeshan Haider, Dawood Nasir and Javed Imam Siddiqui.
,
Tags: AAP MLA, amanatullah khan tweet, Directorate of Enforcement, Enforcement directorate
FIRST PUBLISHED: April 18, 2024, 20:59 IST