AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan arrested by investigating agency ED after searching his house
Amanatullah Khan also rejected the charges against him and accused the agency of "harassing me for two years...registering false cases and creating problems".
Ankush Pandey
Aam Aadmi Party MLA Amanatullah Khan was on Monday arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with alleged irregularities in appointments in the Delhi Waqf Board and leasing out of its properties, believed to be worth Rs 100 crore.
The AAP leader's arrest comes after dramatic scenes of the federal agency's raid at his Delhi residence this morning; in a video statement on X, he accused the ED of acting insensitively, and said the raid had upset his mother-in-law, who is a cancer patient and underwent a surgery last week.
He said, “ED has come to arrest me on the pretext of search. My mother-in-law is a cancer patient... she had an operation four days ago. She is at my house. I have informed ED about this..."
ED Raids Khan's Home
Visuals from this morning show an elderly woman lying on a bed while Mr Khan is seen talking to a man - presumably an ED official - and asking for four weeks' time. To this the man replies, "Why do you believe we are here to arrest you..." and Mr Khan replies, "And why are you here?"
A woman, possibly Mr Khan's wife, is heard saying, "Why do you need to search a three-room house? Why do you have to turn my house upside down every time?"
The woman, who is presumably Mr Khan's wife, says, "She has cancer and has undergone an operation. If anything happens to my mother, I will take you to court. She can't even stand up."
अभी सुबह-सुबह तानाशाह के इशारे पर उनकी कटपुतली ED मेरे घर पर पहुँच चुकी है, मुझे और AAP नेताओं को परेशान करने में तानाशाह कोई कसर नहीं छोड़ रहा।
— Amanatullah Khan AAP (@KhanAmanatullah) September 2, 2024
ईमानदारी से अवाम की ख़िदमत करना गुनाह है?
आख़िर ये तानाशाही कब तक?#EDRaid #Okhla pic.twitter.com/iR2YN7Z9NL
Meanwhile, Khan too rejected the allegations and accused the ED of "harassing me for two years...registering false cases (and) creating problems". "They are harassing our party (AAP)...they want to break our party...we will not be scared," the MLA from Delhi's Okhla said.
AAP Reacts, Slams ED
Mr Khan posted a message of support on X, saying “revolutionaries will not bow to the tyranny of a dictator” and accusing the agency of acting on a “fake case”.
Former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia was detained by a central agency in February last year, Amanatullah Khan is now the fourth prominent AAP leader to be arrested by the federal agency. The other two are Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh.
The latter three - Mr Sisodia and Mr Kejriwal - were arrested by the ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation in connection with the alleged liquor policy scam.
Sanjay Singh and Manish Sisodia have been granted bail; Mr Sisodia was granted bail last month after nearly 18 months in jail, after the Supreme Court called his prolonged detention without a trial (or any hope of a trial in the near future) a “travesty of justice”.
Mr Kejriwal is still in jail, having got bail in the ED case, but had to fight a second bail battle after his last-minute arrest by the CBI.
Both Mr Singh and Mr Sisodia criticised the ED, saying the agency has been "repeatedly reprimanded by the Supreme Court... that they should not investigate with malice".
Singh said, "Despite this, today the ED reached Amanatullah Khan's house early in the morning to conduct raids... that too at a time when his mother-in-law is suffering from cancer and has undergone an operation." He also criticised the agency for taking hasty action in a six-year-old case.
ED की निर्दयता देखिये @KhanAmanatullah पहले ED की जाँच में शामिल हुए उनसे आगे के लिए समय माँगा, उनकी Mother In Law को कैंसर है उनका ऑपरेशन हुआ है घर में सुबह सुबह धावा बोलने पहुँच गये।@KhanAmanatullah के ख़िलाफ़ कोई सबूत नहीं है लेकिन मोदी की तानाशाही और ED की गुंडागर्दी दोनों… pic.twitter.com/GyhduaghJB
— Sanjay Singh AAP (@SanjayAzadSln) September 2, 2024
The allegations against Amanatullah Khan date back to 2016, when the CBI filed its case. Mr Singh said the central agency did not arrest the AAP leader even after a long investigation. "He had not committed any crime, so the CBI did not arrest him... but even after that the ED did not close its case."
In April, Mr Khan was granted bail by Delhi's Rouse Avenue Court in connection with his alleged failure to appear on ED summons in the Waqf Board money laundering case.
“This is the only job left for the ED now...” Mr Sisodia reiterated what many have been claiming — that the ruling BJP uses federal agencies to harass rivals, especially before elections.
"...suppressing every voice against the BJP and putting in jail those who do not budge," Mr Sisodia said. His statement was echoed by party colleague and Delhi Health Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj, who linked the ED action against Mr Khan to the Assembly elections in the city due early next year.
