The chief metropolitan magistrate, Patiala House court, on Monday night remanded AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan to four-day ED custody in a money laundering case, observing that the material placed on record showed that offence was committed under the PMLA.
The ED produced Khan before Special Judge Rakesh Syal hours after he was arrested from his house and sought his custody for 10 days, stating he was needed to be confronted with other accused and evidence in the case.
"Four-day ED custody, to be produced on September 6," said the judge who had earlier reserved its order on the ED's application.
It rejected the contention of Khan that his arrest was illegal and ordered that his interrogation be conducted under CCTV.
"The judge said it was well settled that criminal conspiracy cases pertaining to financial irregularities, benami purchase of properties, bribe etc., are often hatched in secrecy and around a dark cover of complex transactions.
In such cases, custodial interrogation may be required, inter-alia, for confrontation with various pieces of evidence to unearth the complete conspiracy," the judge said.
The judge noted that the material placed on record prima facie showed the commission of offence under PMLA.
While "the seized diaries of Accused-4 Kausar Imam Siddiqui disclose that properties in question were purchased for about Rs 36 crore. Out of this amount, the payment of Rs 27 crore was made in cash and a sum of Rs 8.33 crores was made by the accused- Khan", Judge pointed out.
The Court further noted that the property was valued to be Rs 36 crore while it was shown to be Rs 13.40 crore.
It observed that the purchaser of the property did not have the financial capacity to purchase it and Khan had purchased the property in the name of his benamidars.
The 50-year-old MLA from the Okhla assembly seat was taken into custody from his residence under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) at 11.20 am.
The ED had descended for a search at his residence just after 6 am.
The money laundering probe against Khan stems from two FIRs, one registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation in the Delhi Wakf Board-related "irregularities" and another by the Delhi Anti-Corruption Branch related to a case of alleged possession of disproportionate assets.
ED told the court that some questions were put to Khan during the search but he remained "evasive" and hence was arrested. The agency said that Khan is the main accused. "Proceeds of crime have been used and laundered to buy property. Cash was also used," it alleged.
There was an attempt to misguide the agency," ED told the court and accused Khan of non-cooperation, saying 14 summonses were issued to him and he appeared only once that too after the direction of the Supreme Court.
Khan is one of the many AAP leaders booked by the federal agency in various money laundering cases, which also include Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh, and former minister Satyendar Jain.
Sisodia and Sanjay Singh are currently out of jail on bail.
A purported video showed Khan, seen sitting on a bed next to his mother-in-law-who he claimed had only recently undergone surgery. In an unverified video, Khan told an ED officer standing outside his locked gate that he "knows they want to arrest" him.
In a statement, Kahn has said that his mother-in-law, a cancer patient who underwent surgery four days ago, and he had sought four weeks time from the ED for her treatment.
These people have come to arrest me today. Will the ED deputy director take responsibility in front of the SHO that my arrest will not have a bad effect on my mother-in-law's health and she will not die?" the MLA said in a video message posted on X before his arrest.
Khan claimed he has "fully cooperated" with the ED.
ACB and CBI have also done their investigation into this case earlier and given me a clean chit. ED searched my house in this case on 10 October 2023, he said.
ED, which has conducted raids at his premises earlier too, has claimed that Khan acquired huge proceeds of crime in the form of cash through illegal recruitment of staff in the Delhi Wakf Board and invested those to purchase immovable assets in the name of his associates.
In a statement, the agency had alleged that "illegal recruitment" of staff took place in the Wakf Board and "illegal personal gains" were made by unfairly leasing the Wakf Board properties during Khan's chairmanship from 2018-2022.
The agency had filed a charge sheet in this case in January and named four people including three alleged associates of Khan — Zeeshan Haider, Daud Nasir and Jawed Imam Siddiqui.
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