Court seeks ED response on anticipatory bail plea by Delhi MLA

Delhi court seeks ED response on AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan's bail plea in money laundering case related to Delhi Waqf Board recruitments.

A Delhi court on Monday sought a response from the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on the anticipatory bail application moved by Aam Aadmi Party MLA Amanatullah Khan in the money laundering case registered against him in connection with irregularities regarding recruitments at the Delhi Waqf Board.

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Khan is being investigated by the ED under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in connection with the case registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for his role in the alleged irregularities in recruitment of staff and leasing of properties of the Delhi Waqf Board. He had filed for anticipatory bail on Saturday.

Senior advocate Maneka Guruswamy and advocate Rajat Bharadwaj, appearing for Khan, argued that the ED’s case is based on two FIRs, one by CBI and the other by ACB, which goes against the cardinal principle of criminal law that two FIRs cannot be registered for the same cause of action.

They further argued that there was no evidence on record that Khan was guilty of generation of proceeds of crime which is being probed by ED.

Referring to the orders granting bail to Khan, given by the court in the predicate offence cases, the counsels evinced that the courts had observed that there had been no loss to the exchequer regarding the creation of tenancies of the properties of the Delhi Waqf Board, and there was no material on record to show that bribes were paid for securing jobs in the Delhi Waqf Board or salaries were drawn without doing any kind of work.

It was further averred that three summons had been issued to Khan till date, where in the last summon, issued on Friday, he was asked to join the probe on February 19.

Special judge Rakesh Syal after hearing the submissions of the counsels issued a notice to the ED and listed the case for hearing detailed arguments on February 20.

Khan had earlier approached the Delhi high court challenging the summons issued to him by the ED, however, it was later withdrawn by him on February 7.

The CBI filed a FIR against Khan in 2016, accusing him of illegally appointing various people to the Delhi Waqf Board against non-sanctioned and non-existent vacancies, which caused financial loss to the Delhi government and led to illegal gains for him.

Subsequently, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said the AAP leader was involved in money laundering. According to the federal agency, the AAP leader laundered his illegal monetary gains by purchasing immovable properties through his associates.