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ED arrests AAP lawmaker Amanatullah Khan over alleged money laundering
Former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, who was last month released on bail in the excise policy probe after 17 months, said those who could not be suppressed are put behind bars
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday arrested Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) lawmaker (Okhla) Amanatullah Khan over alleged money laundering linked to irregularities in the Delhi Waqf Board (DWB) and disproportionate assets, people familiar with the matter said.
“We have arrested Khan in a money laundering case, which stems from two first information reports by the Central Bureau of Investigation related to alleged irregularities in the Delhi Waqf Board and another by Delhi Anti-Corruption Branch related to an alleged case of amassing disproportionate assets,” said an officer, who did not want to be named.
The ED took Khan into custody after raiding his residence in Okhla and questioning him. In a post on X, Khan earlier said an ED team was at his residence to arrest him. “It is seven in the morning, and the ED has come to arrest me in the name of a search warrant. My mother-in-law has cancer, and she is currently at my home. I have written to them, and I have also replied to each of their notices.”
Khan accused the ED of harassing him for the last two years. “Their only aim is to break our party. We are not going to bow down, and we are not going to break,” Khan said in a video message.
The AAP criticised the Union government over the arrest saying it was using ED to suppress every voice raised against it.
Former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, who was last month released on bail in the excise policy case after 17 months, said those who could not be suppressed or broken are put behind bars. AAP leader Sanjay Singh said there is no evidence against Khan.
In April, ED moved a court seeking an arrest warrant against Khan citing his non-appearance before the agency. The federal agency filed a charge sheet in the case against Khan’s alleged associates Zeeshan Haider, Daud Nasir, Jawed Imam Siddiqui, and Kausar Imam Siddiqui in January. It alleged Khan acquired proceeds of crime in cash through the illegal recruitment of staff in the Delhi Waqf Board and invested those to purchase immovable assets in the name of his associates.
The ED claimed illegal personal gains were made by unfairly leasing the Waqf Board properties during Khan’s chairmanship between 2018 and 2022. Officials, who did not want to be named, said Khan allegedly made cash payments of over ₹8 crore to acquire a 1,200 square yard property in Jamia Nagar with the help of his associates. They called it a key evidence against him.
ED’s charge sheet, a copy of which HT has seen, said Khan hatched a criminal conspiracy and invested his ill-gotten money in immovable properties through his associates to launder the money. “He purchased immovable properties in the name of his benamidar (unnamed) – Zeeshan Haider and Daud Nasir - by concealing and suppressing their actual value which is very nominal in comparison to their actual sale value and actively concealed amounts that were paid in cash to seller which are nothing but proceeds of crime acquired by Amanatullah Khan out of his corrupt and illegal activities,” the charge sheet said.
