New Delhi: The Delhi Anti-Corruption Bureau detained Aam Aadmi Party MLA Amanatullah Khan in a two-year-old corruption case involving suspected improper appointments to the Delhi Waqf Board.
The 48-year-old MLA is supported by the AAP, which has referred to the accusations against him as “baseless.”
The charge was filed under the Prevention of Corruption Act in 2020, and the Okhla MLA was contacted for an interview at 12 o’clock today.
“Mr Amanatullah Khan while working as Chairman of Delhi Waqf Board illegally recruited 32 persons violating all norms and Govt. guidelines and with allegations of corruption and favoritism. The then CEO of Delhi Waqf Board had clearly given statement and issued memorandum against such illegal recruitment,” said a press release from the anti-corruption office.
Additionally, the anti-corruption unit asserted that outside Amanatullah Khan’s home, members of his family and other known individuals attacked the search team.
The AAP leader allegedly “misappropriated the finances of Delhi Waqf Board, including grants in aid from Delhi Government,” according to the ACB’s further allegations.
In addition to two unlawful and unlicensed guns, the ACB seized 24 lakh.
“The arrest of Amanatullah Khan is baseless and the case against him is absolutely bogus. Nothing has been found in the raids at his home and office. This is a new attemtpt to malign the AAP and tarnish the image of the MLA,” said the party in its response to the arrest.
In what has escalated into a vicious verbal battle between the Centre and the AAP, Khan is the most recent of numerous AAP leaders to be searched by federal investigators.
The Delhi Waqf Board Chairman, Khan, said in a sarcastic tweet from yesterday night that he was summoned because he was constructing a new Waqf board office.
The Delhi government’s Anti-Corruption Branch, which answers to Lt Governor VK Saxena, a representative of the BJP-led government at the centre, had given Khan notice to appear for questioning regarding claims of an illegal appointment in the Delhi Waqf Board, which is in charge of managing Islamic property used for charitable purposes.
The ACB had previously written to the Lieutenant Governor’s Secretariat requesting the removal of Khan as the chairman of the Delhi Waqf Board for allegedly obstructing an investigation by “bullying” witnesses in a case against him.
Saxena had already given the CBI permission to bring charges against the head of the Delhi Waqf Board in the case that had been filed against him in 2016, according to news agency PTI.
According to sources cited by the news agency, Mehboob Aalam, the former CEO of the Waqf Board, has also been sanctioned by the prosecution for offences including “deliberate and criminal violation” of rules, regulations, and the law, as well as “misuse of position” and causing financial losses to the exchequer.
In November 2016, the sub-divisional magistrate (headquarters) of the revenue department of the Delhi government submitted a complaint alleging “arbitrary and illegal” appointments made by Khan to numerous open and unfilled positions within the Delhi Waqf Board.
