High Court Denies Bail To AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan In Money Laundering Case

The Delhi high court on Monday refused to grant anticipatory bail to Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) legislator Amanatullah Khan in connection with a money laundering case linked to alleged irregularities in the recruitment of staff for the Delhi Waqf Board being probed the Enforcement Directorate (ED), saying that repeated disobedience of the federal agency’s summons is equivalent to obstruction of the investigation.

The ED case was based on a first information report (FIR) filed in 2016 by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against Khan. CBI said Khan illegally appointed various people to the Delhi Waqf Board against non-sanctioned and non-existent vacancies, which caused financial loss to the Delhi government and illegal gains to himself. ED alleged that the accused were involved in money laundering as it had recovered incriminating evidence, including three diaries which contained details of voluminous suspicious cash transactions.

Khan in February moved a city court with a bail plea, saying that he had an apprehension of being arrested by ED owing to him being under the federal agency’s scanner for his alleged role in the case. However, the court rejected the plea on March 1, following which the MLA moved the high court on March 2.