New Delhi:

A Delhi court on Monday night remanded AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan to four-day ED custody in a money laundering case.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) produced Amanatullah Khan before Special Judge Rakesh Syal hours after he was arrested from his home and sought his 10-day custody, stating he was required to be confronted with other accused and evidence in the case.

“Four-day ED custody, to be produced on September 6,” said the judge who had earlier reserved its order on the ED’s application The 50-year-old MLA from the Okhla assembly seat was taken into custody from his residence under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) at 11.20 am.

The ED had descended for a search at his residence just after 6 am.

The money laundering probe against Amanatullah Khan stems from two FIRs, one registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation in the Delhi Wakf Board-related “irregularities” and another by the Delhi Anti-Corruption Branch related to a case of alleged possession of disproportionate assets.

The ED told the court that some questions were put to Amanatullah Khan during the search but he remained “evasive” and hence was arrested. The agency said that Khan is the main accused. “Proceeds of crime have been used and laundered to buy property. Cash was also used,” it alleged.

“There was an attempt to misguide the agency,” the ED told the court and accused Amanatullah Khan of non-cooperation, saying that 14 summonses were issued to him and he appeared only once, that too after the Supreme Court’s direction.

Khan is among several AAP leaders who have been arrested by the federal agency in different money laundering cases, including Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh and former minister Satyendar Jain.

Sisodia and Sanjay Singh are now out of jail on bail.

A purported video showed Amanatullah Khan sitting on a bed near his mother-in-law who he said had recently undergone surgery. An unconfirmed video showed Amanatullah Khan telling an ED officer standing outside his locked gate that he “knows they want to arrest” him.

Amanatullah Khan in a statement said that his mother-in-law is a cancer patient, who underwent surgery four days ago and he had sought four weeks’ time from the ED for her treatment.

“Today, these people have come to arrest me. Will the ED deputy director take responsibility in front of the SHO that if they arrest me, it will not have a bad effect on my mother-in-law’s health and she will not die?” the MLA said in a video message posted on X before his arrest.

Amanatullah Khan claimed he has “fully cooperated” with the ED.

“Earlier in this case, the ACB and the CBI have also done their investigation and given me a clean chit. The ED had searched my house in this case on 10 October 2023,” he said.

The ED, which had conducted raids on his premises earlier too, has claimed Amanatullah Khan acquired “huge proceeds of crime” in cash through illegal recruitment of staff in the Delhi Wakf Board and invested those to purchase immovable assets in the name of his associates.

The agency had alleged in a statement that “illegal recruitment” of staff took place in the Wakf Board and “illegal personal gains” were made by unfairly leasing the Wakf Board properties during Amanatullah Khan’s chairmanship (2018-2022).

The agency filed a charge sheet in this case in January and named four people including three alleged associates of Amanatullah Khan — Zeeshan Haider, Daud Nasir and Jawed Imam Siddiqui.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s first meeting with Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs after the Supreme Court granted him interim bail had a notable absence — Okhla MLA Amanatullah Khan. Mr Khan and his son Anas Ahmed are facing allegations of assaulting and threatening staff at a fuel pump in Noida Sector 95. Cops have claimed that Mr Khan and Anas are “underground”.

An FIR has been registered against the two under charges of assault and criminal intimidation, Noida police officers have said. The cops said a police team visited the MLA’s residence to serve him a notice, but he was not found there. The officers have said Khan and his son were not cooperating in the investigation. Their phones are also switched off, according to the officers in Noida police.

The FIR, police said, was registered on a complaint by a fuel pump employee. The complainant has alleged that Anas visited the pump to refuel but jumped the queue. Anas was mentioned as “unidentified” in the FIR. He allegedly insisted that his car should be refuelled first and assaulted the salesperson. Senior police officer Manish Kumar Mishra said the FIR has been registered at Phase 1 police station against Mr Khan, Anas and some unidentified persons.

The AAP MLA told news agency PTI that his son, a student of law, was on his way to take an exam when the incident happened. “The staff of the petrol pump misbehaved with my son and also manhandled him. Now, they are using incomplete CCTV footage to malign my image and frame me in a one-sided police action,” he alleged.

Mr Khan has also said that after he received a call from local police, he reached the petrol pump, spoke to its owner and “settled” the matter. But later he learnt that he was “implicated” in the case by the police, he said.

Vinod Kumar Singh, the complainant, has alleged that Anas arrived there in his car and asked the salesman to refuel his car first. “He then started beating the salesman and threatened that he was the MLA’s son. He took out an iron rod from the car and started hitting around. He also broke the card machine,” the FIR says.

“To protect the salesman, other petrol pump employees got involved in the scuffle. The police were called in. But he fled the spot,” it stated.

The complaint adds that Anas returned later to the fuel pump and threatened to thrash all the employees there. “He then called his father who arrived there in a convoy of two cars and threatened the pump manager by saying that he (manager) would not be able to do anything if he (Khan) starts beating him and the workers. The MLA then spoke to the pump owner over the phone and told him that this pump falls in our area and if you are here to do business, then do it,” the complainant alleged.

The FIR has been registered under several Indian Penal Code sections, including those related to voluntarily causing hurt, criminal intimidation and mischief.

A two-time MLA from Okhla, Mr Khan was declared a ‘bad character’ by Delhi Police last year. 

The Delhi Chief Minister, meanwhile, told AAP MLAs that the BJP wanted to topple the party’s governments in Delhi and Punjab after his arrest on March 21, but the plan did not work.

The AAP, he said, had become more united after his arrest. “They had a plan that they will arrest me, break the party, topple the government in Delhi and then in Punjab also. After arrest, their plan failed. You all did not break,” he told the MLAs.

The AAP national convener was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money-laundering case linked to the now-scrapped Delhi liquor policy. The Supreme Court Friday granted him interim bail so that he can campaign for the ongoing Lok Sabha polls. He has to surrender on June 2, a day after the last round of polling in the seven-phase election.

New Delhi:

The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday raided the premises of AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan in Delhi as part of a money-laundering investigation against him and some others, official sources said.

The 49-year-old legislator represents the Okhla constituency in the Delhi Assembly.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) searches are being undertaken under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

The federal agency has taken cognisance of a Delhi Anti-Corruption Bureau FIR and a Central Bureau of Investigation FIR against the legislator, related to alleged corruption linked to illegal appointments in the Delhi Waqf Board.

Mr Khan is the Delhi Waqf Board chairman.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)