NEW DELHI: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Amanatullah Khan, who approached the Delhi High Court against the summons issued to him by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case, withdrawn his plea on Wednesday.
A division bench of Justices Rekha Palli and Rajnish Bhatnagar dismissed the plea as withdrawn. 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 represents Okhla constituency.
“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.” ED had said.
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 certain allegations have been found to be ‘administrative irregularities’,” Khan’s plea read.