New Delhi: A local court on Monday issued a notice to the Enforcement Directorate on an application moved by AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan, seeking anticipatory bail in a money-laundering case related to alleged irregularities by the Delhi Waqf Board in hiring staff and leasing assets during his chairmanship.
Special judge Rakesh Syal sought the central probe agency's response by Tuesday, when the court will hear arguments on the application that has claimed Khan anticipates being arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the case. Khan, the AAP's Okhla MLA, was not named as an accused in the charge sheet that the ED recently filed.
The ED has named five entities in its prosecution complaint (the ED's equivalent of a charge sheet) that included three suspected associates of Khan -- Zeeshan Haider, Daud Nasir and Jawed Imam Siddiqui. The agency, after conducting raids on premises linked to Khan and some others in October, had claimed that the AAP MLA acquired "huge proceeds of crime" in cash from illegal recruitment of staff to the Delhi Waqf Board and invested those for purchasing immovable assets in the name of his associates.
The searches were conducted in the case related to illegal recruitment of staff and illegitimate personal gains made by the accused by way of unfairly leasing Waqf Board properties during 2018-2022 when Khan was its chairperson, the ED has said. The money-laundering case stems from a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) FIR and three Delhi Police complaints.
The ED alleged that Khan "acquired huge proceeds of crime out of the said criminal activities in cash and this cash amount was invested in purchase of various immovable properties in Delhi in the name of his associates". Several "incriminating" material in the form of physical and digital evidence were seized during the raids, indicating Khan's involvement in the offence of money laundering, it has said.
