On Saturday (11th November), the Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested three associates of AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan in the money laundering case pertaining to alleged irregularities in staff recruitment of the Delhi Waqf Board.
Zeeshan Haider, Daud Nasir, and Jawed Immam Siddiqui have been arrested per the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The ED stated that the three were Amanatullah Khan’s “associates” and had dubious monetary transactions between them.
Following the arrests, the Enforcement Directorate sought 14-day judicial custody of Zeeshan Haider, Daud Nasir, and Jawed Immam Siddiqui. However, Special Judge Nyay Bindu reportedly refused ED’s request and sent the accused to judicial custody till Sunday. The special judge said that the arguments were expected to take a long time to conclude.
The court took note of the arguments advanced by defence lawyer Nitesh Rana, who alleged that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) illegally produced the accused before the court after over 30 hours of detention. Notably, the rule requires a law enforcement agency to bring an arrested person before a court of law within 24 hours of their arrest.
“The accused were called by the ED at 11 a.m. on November 10, and they have been in the ED’s custody since then.” They were produced before the court at around 3:30 pm on Saturday,” Rana informed the judge.
This comes days after ED conducted raids and searched properties associated with AAP Delhi MLA Amanatullah Khan on 10th October as part of a money laundering inquiry against him and others. The AAP MLA from Okhla was arrested last year by the Delhi government’s Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) in connection with alleged irregularities in the Delhi Waqf Board.
As reported earlier, in 2016, a case was lodged against Khan following a complaint from the sub-divisional magistrate (headquarters), revenue department, alleging that appointments to various “existing and non-existing posts” in the Waqf Board were “arbitrary and illegal”.
According to charges made by a man named Hafiz Irshad Qureshi, the Board hired 33 persons on a contract basis without following any laws or regulations. Some of those chosen to the board were said to be related to Khan, and the majority were from his area, Okhla.
The complaint further stated that the CEO of the new Waqf board and over 30 staff members were appointed and employed in contravention of Section 24 of the Waqf Act, 1955 and Delhi Waqf Rules, 1977.
An FIR was filed in the aforementioned case in 2020 and Khan had been charged with illegal appointments, rule violations, and theft of funds in the Waqf Board.