NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Thursday refused to stay the summons issued by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan in relation to a money laundering probe.
Listing it for hearing on February 7 at the request of Khan's counsel, a bench headed by Justice Rekha Pall clarified that it has not granted any interim protection to him.
"It is made clear that this court has not issued notice on the petition nor granted any interim protection to the petitioner at this stage," the bench, also comprising Justice Rajnish Bhatnagar, said.
The money laundering probe against Khan is linked to alleged irregularities in recruitment by the Delhi Waqf Board.
It is alleged that Khan, while working as the chairman of the Delhi Waqf Board, had illegally recruited 32 people in violation of norms and government guidelines.
The ED had raided the premises of Khan who is an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader from Okhla constituency.
As per ED, "Searches were conducted in the case related to illegal recruitment of staff in Delhi Waqf Board and illegal personal gains by way of unfairly leasing out of Waqf Board properties during the chairmanship of the board by Amanatullah Khan during 2018-2022."
During the hearing, the central probe agency opposed Khan's plea for adjournment, saying he did not appear before it on January 30 despite the summons.
As per the plea, Khan was seeking directions from the court to "read down" certain PMLA provisions pertaining to the powers of authorities concerned to issue summons and seek evidence.
The rule of reading down involves saving statutory provisions from being struck down as illegal or unconstitutional.
"It is incomprehensible as to how the ED has chosen to make sweeping allegations in the ECIR and commenced its investigations under PMLA for all allegations in the FIR when to the contrary in the Charge-sheet filed in the said Scheduled/Predicate Offence certain allegations have been found to be ‘administrative irregularities’," Khan's plea read.
"Under no circumstances can the ED take up investigations for offence of money laundering beyond the specific proceeds of crime relatable to that particular Scheduled/Predicate offence," it said.