ED questioned AAP MLA Amanatullah for more than 13 hours over a Waqf Board matter; she was invited to reappear

Amanatullah Khan, an AAP member of parliament, was questioned by the Enforcement Directorate for almost 13 hours on Thursday on a money laundering case related to alleged anomalies in the Delhi Waqf Board that he presided over, according to sources. around more than 13 hours of interrogation, he left the ED office in central Delhi around midnight. He arrived there at 11 a.m. He has been invited to appear before the agency next week, according to sources.

As he was departing, Khan informed reporters that the ED had recorded his deposition, which he had taken at the Supreme Court’s request. He claimed that as part of this investigation, the agency had requested certain papers from him. Reports of his arrest, according to Khan, were “rumours”. Sanjay Singh, an AAP MP, Atishi, and other party officials paid Khan’s family a visit on Thursday night and offered their support.

Reporters were informed of their MLA’s detention by Atishi, who spoke to them outside Khan’s home. She said that the case against him was untrue. “We are getting the news that AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan ji has been arrested,” she had said. The 50-year-old lawmaker from Okhla assembly constituency deposed himself after the Supreme Court last week rejected his request for anticipatory release in the case involving alleged violations in the Delhi Waqf Board under his leadership. On April 18, the supreme court ordered him to get involved in the inquiry.

Before going inside the ED office, Khan told reporters that he complied with the law while he was the head of the Waqf Board, seeking legal advice before taking any action and following the 2013 legislation. Three Delhi Police complaints and a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) FIR are the basis for the money laundering investigation against Khan.

The Delhi Waqf Board’s unlawful employment of workers allowed Khan to obtain “huge proceeds of crime” in cash, which he used to buy real estate in the names of his accomplices, according to the ED, which had raided his facilities. In a statement, the ED said that under Khan’s chairperson (2018–2022), the Waqf Board engaged in “illegal recruitment” of employees and earned “illegal personal gains” via unfair leasing of the board’s assets.