The Supreme Court on Monday will hear a plea by AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan seeking anticipatory bail in a money laundering case related to alleged irregularities in the Waqf Board during his chairmanship.
A bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Dipankar Datta is scheduled to hear the plea of Khan in which he has challenged the March 11 order of the high court, denying him the relief in the case.
Earlier on March 11, disapproving repeated evasion of summonses of investigating agencies by public persons, the high court refused to grant pre-arrest bail to Khan.
Noting that the Okhla MLA didn’t appear before the ED despite 6 summonses, the high court stated that the legislators should know that disobeying the law will lead to legal consequences as all citizens are equal in the eyes of the law and an “MLA or a public figure is not above the law of the land.”
The court stated in its detailed order, “This court wonders whether a person’s plea of being busy with personal or official work can be a valid ground on several occasions to avoid summons on the ground that he is a public person.
The answer in this court’s opinion has to be in the negative.”
It acknowledged the right of an investigating agency to conduct a probe and asserted that it is for the public figure to “find time & appear,” pursuant to any summons issued to him.
The money laundering case against Khan stems from a CBI FIR and 3 Delhi Police complaints.
The ED, which earlier conducted raids on the premises of the legislator, has claimed that Khan acquired “huge proceeds of crime” in cash through illegal recruitment of staff in the Delhi Waqf Board and invested those to purchase immovable assets in the name of his associates.
A single-judge bench of Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma had stated that the material on record is sufficient to prima facie show that the offence of money laundering was committed by Khan, whose failure to cooperate with the investigating agency “sets a perilous precedent” and it is crucial that he joins and cooperates with the investigation.