Delhi LG assent for CBI probe against AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan

“We completely anticipate and expect many more such allegations to come up in the coming days... But the Kejriwal government stands unfazed,” the AAP said in a statement.

Delhi lieutenant governor Vinai Kumar Saxena has given a prosecution sanction to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to prosecute Aam Aadmi Party MLA and Delhi Waqf Board chairman Amanatullah Khan and the then chief executive of the board, Mehboob Aalam, in a 2016 case of alleged illegal appointments.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Amanatullah Khan (ANI Photo/Amit Sharma)

The AAP has strongly criticised the move. Khan said he will fight the allegations in court.

The federal agency can now prosecute the Delhi lawmaker for “commission of criminal offences that include deliberate and criminal violation of rules, regulations and law, and misuse of position causing financial losses to the exchequer”, according to an official of the lieutenant governor’s office.

The permission has been given under section 19 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, and section 197 (prior sanction from a competent officer to prosecute a government servant for alleged criminal act done in discharge of his official duty) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.

The revenue department of the Delhi government had in November 2016 filed a complaint, alleging arbitrary and illegal appointments to various existing and non-existing posts by Khan in the Delhi Waqf Board. The CBI probed the matter, and said it found prosecutable evidence and asked for permission to prosecute in May this year.

“As per investigation of the CBI, Amanatullah Khan in connivance with Mehboob Aalam abused his official position and deliberately ignored rules and laid down procedures to cause huge losses to the government exchequer by arbitrarily appointing individuals by manipulating recruitment procedures to favour chosen individuals over thousands of deserving people who could have got employed had the process of appointment been transparent and impartial,” said the official cited above. “The basic principle of right to equality and opportunity was bypassed by Amanatullah Khan to provide undeserving and unauthorised benefits to specific pre-identified persons.”

Khan, who was questioned by the agency in March, told HT that he will fight the case in the court.

His party also came out in support, saying that it was a politically motivated move by the central government.

“We completely anticipate and expect many more such allegations to come up in the coming days,” the AAP said in a statement. “But the Kejriwal government stands unfazed and will not deter on its mission to serve the people of Delhi.”

No comment was available from the CBI on the matter.

The investigations by the central agency have found that there is sufficient evidence to prosecute Khan and Aalam under sections 13 (1)(d) and 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, read with section 120-B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) 1860, before a court of law.