The case against AAP's Amanatullah Khan relates to alleged irregularities in Waqf appointments
Officials of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) reached the residence of AAP leader Amanatullah Khan this morning in connection with the agency's investigation into a money laundering case against the MLA. The case relates to alleged irregularities in appointments in Delhi Waqf Board and leasing of its properties.
Mr Khan put out a video statement on X in which he said the ED team has plans to arrest him. "The ED team has come to arrest me on the pretext of a search. My mother-in-law is a cancer patient, she was operated upon four days back. She is also at my home. I had informed this (to the ED)," he said.
Alleging that the agency's aim is to arrest him, he said, "They have been harassing me for two years, slapping false cases, creating problems. They are harassing our whole party. Their objective to break our party. I appeal to the people of Okhla to pray for me and promise that we will get all your work done. Don't worry, we will not get scared."
Visuals show an elderly woman on a bed as Mr Khan speaks to a man -- apparently an ED official -- on the other side of a mesh door. "I want four weeks' time. My mother-in-law has been operated upon," he says. The man outside the gate replies, "Why do you believe we are here to arrest you?" The legislator replies, "Why else have you come?" A woman, apparently Mr Khan's wife, is heard saying, "What do you need to search at a three-room house. Why do you have to turn my home upside down every time?"
"She has cancer and she has been operated upon. I will take you the court if anything happens to my mother. She can't even stand," the woman adds.
Top AAP leaders Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh have hit out at the BJP government at the Centre and accused it of targeting those who raise their voice against the ruling party.
"This is the only work left with ED. Muffle every voice raised against BJP. And jail the ones who do not break," said the former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister, who was recently granted bail in a money laundering case.
AAP MP Sanjay Singh, also arrested earlier in a money laundering case, questioned if the probe against Mr Khan is "comedy".
The CBI, he said, has told a court that no financial crime was committed in this matter. The Okhla MLA had been arrested in this case and the court said no corruption was committed, Mr Singh added. The ED, he said, searched Mr Khan's home last year too, and found nothing.
BJP leader and Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly said Mr Khan is a notorious, corrupt and anti-social element. "I want to ask people in the AAP, if you are presenting hooliganism and corruption like this, it shows how Arvind Kejriwal's politics misleads people."