New Delhi:
Soon after questioning him earlier today, the Delhi Anti Corruption Bureau today raided Aam Aadmi Party MLA Amanatullah Khan’s house and five other locations linked to him in a two-year-old corruption case related to allegedly illegal appointments in the Delhi Waqf Board. The Okhla MLA was called for questioning at 12 pm today in connection with the case, which was registered under the Prevention of Corruption Act in 2020.
The ACB seized Rs 12 lakh as well as an unlicensed weapon, officials said.
Mr Khan is the latest of several AAP leaders being raided by central investigative agencies in what has turned into a bitter war of words between the Centre and the AAP.
Mr Khan, Chairman of the Delhi Waqf Board, had last night posted a snide tweet about the notice, claiming he has been summoned as he built a new Waqf board office.
वक़्फ़ बोर्ड का नया दफ़्तर बनवाया है,
हमें #ACB ने बुलाया है…चलो फिर बुलावा आया है! pic.twitter.com/YAiumagPbc
— Amanatullah Khan AAP (@KhanAmanatullah) September 15, 2022
The Anti-Corruption Branch of the Delhi government, which reports to Lt Governor VK Saxena, a representative of the BJP-led government at the centre, had sent notice to Mr Khan to appear for questioning over allegations of illegal appointment in the Delhi Waqf Board which oversees the administration of Islamic property dedicated to welfare causes.
Earlier, the ACB had written to the Lieutenant Governor’s Secretariat demanding that Mr Khan be removed as the Delhi Waqf Board chairman for allegedly hampering a probe by “bullying” witnesses in a case against him.
Mr Saxena had earlier cleared the CBI to prosecute the Delhi Waqf Board Chairman in the case registered against him in 2016, news agency PTI had reported.
The news agency quoted sources as saying that the prosecution sanction has also been granted against then Waqf Board CEO Mehboob Aalam for offences including “deliberate and criminal violation” of rules, regulations, and law, and “misuse of position” and causing financial losses to the exchequer.
The Delhi government’s revenue department’s sub-divisional magistrate (headquarters) had in November 2016 filed a complaint alleging “arbitrary and illegal” appointments by Mr Khan to various existing and non-existing posts in the Delhi Waqf Board.
