Amanatullah Khan siphoned off funds collected to help Delhi riot victims: ED

The Uncut


New Delhi. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday claimed that Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Amanatullah Khan opened an “unauthorized” bank account on the pretext of collecting funds to aid the victims of Delhi riots and diverted some of this public money in cash. It was taken out and given to him.

The federal agency made this claim after the ED filed a supplementary charge sheet against Khan and his second wife Maryam Siddiqui in the special PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) court in Delhi on Tuesday. The hearing of the case has been scheduled for November 4. The ED’s money laundering case pertains to alleged irregularities committed by Khan when he was the chairman of the Delhi Waqf Board between 2016-2021. Khan (50) is MLA from Okhla seat. The agency has also accused Khan of not giving “complete details” of his dependents in his election affidavit.

ED said, “Khan formed the Delhi Waqf Board Relief Committee without taking any approval from the Delhi Waqf Board.” The agency said, “On the pretext of collecting funds for the victims of Delhi riots, Khan opened an unauthorized bank account in the name of Delhi Waqf Relief Committee and part of the money received from the people was withdrawn in cash on the instructions of Khan and was transferred to ( Khan) was handed over.” Delhi riots took place in February 2020. According to the ED, Khan had not given “complete details of dependents” in the election affidavit filed by him.

It said, “Maryam Siddiqui was married to Amanatullah Khan and is completely dependent on Khan. It was to be mentioned that he has no known source of income and has not filed any income tax return.” The ED said the investigation revealed that Khan had purchased an immovable property in 2020 in the name of his second wife Maryam and paid for it partly in cash and also partly from money received from his close associate Zeeshan Haider.

The agency alleged that Khan, along with his associates like Haider and Dawood Nasir, used the ill-gotten money acquired during (Khan’s) tenure as MLA as Chairman of the Delhi Waqf Board to finance the marriage of Kausar Imam Siddiqui (Khan). through the alleged fund manager) in making cash payment for purchasing a property at 275-276, TTI Tikona Park in Okhla area. This property belonged to Javed Imam Siddiqui.

The agency claimed that the seized “handwritten” diary of Kausar Imam Siddiqui revealed that a cash payment of Rs 27 crore was made by close associates of Khan for the purchase of this property in Tikona Park. The ED said it detected “large amounts of suspicious deposits” in the bank accounts of seller Javed Imam Siddiqui and his wife.

Khan, Haider, Dawood Nasir, Kausar Imam Siddiqui and Javed Imam Siddiqui were arrested by the ED in this case and are currently in jail under judicial custody. The money laundering probe against Khan stems from two FIRs – a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) case regarding alleged irregularities in the Waqf Board and a disproportionate assets case registered by the Delhi Police’s anti-corruption unit.

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