AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan was arrested by the investigating agency ED after searching his house

New Delhi:

MLA of Aam Aadmi Party Amanatullah Khan He was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on Monday on charges of recruitment irregularities Delhi Waqf Board And the rental value of its property is believed to be Rs.100 crore.

The AAP leader’s arrest follows a dramatic raid by federal agencies at his Delhi residence this morning; In a video statement on X he accused the ED of acting insensitively, saying the raids upset his mother-in-law, a cancer patient operated on last week.

“ED has come to arrest me on the pretext of search. My mother-in-law is a cancer patient… She underwent surgery four days ago. She is at my house. I have informed ED..”

ED raids Khan’s house

Visuals from this morning show an elderly woman lying on a bed while Mr Khan talks to a man – possibly an ED officer – and asks for four weeks. To this the man replied, “Why do you believe we are here to arrest you…” and Mr Khan shot back, “Why are you here?”

A woman, believed to be Mr Khan’s wife, is heard saying, “What is the need to search a three-room house. Why do I have to turn my house over every time?”

Read on ED team at AAP MLA’s house, says it plans to arrest him

“He has cancer and has been operated on. I will take you to court if anything happens to my mother. She can’t even stand,” added the woman, presumably Mr Khan’s wife.

Still early in the morning their cutputli ED reached my house to signal the tyrant, the tyrant is not sparing me and AAP leaders problems.

Is it a sin to serve the people sincerely?

How long is this dictatorship?#EDRaid#Okhlapic.twitter.com/iR2YN7Z9NL

— Amanatullah Khan AAP (@Khan Amanatullah) September 2, 2024

Mr Khan, meanwhile, also denied the allegations and accused the ED of “harassing me for two years… making false cases (and) creating problems”. “They are harassing our party (AAP)… They want to break our party… We will not be afraid,” said the MLA from Delhi’s Okhlar.

AAP reacts, condemns ED

Mr Khan posted a message of support on X, declaring that “revolutionaries will not bow to the tyranny of a dictator” and accusing the agency of working on a “bogus case”.

Amanatullah Khan is the fourth high-profile AAP leader to be arrested by central agencies since former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia in February last year; Others include Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

The latter three were arrested – Mr Sisodia and Mr Kejriwal by the ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation, apparently for good measure – in connection with the alleged liquor policy scam.

Read on AAP MP Sanjay Singh gets bail after 6 months in jail in liquor policy case

Sanjay Singh and Manish Sisodia granted bail; Mr. Sisodia was granted bail last month in Mr. Sisodia’s case after nearly 18 months in jail, with the Supreme Court calling his prolonged imprisonment without trial (or any hope of a foreseeable future) a “travesty of justice.”

Read on “Travesti of justice”: Sisodia gets bail, Supreme Court criticizes delay

Mr. Kejriwal remains in jail, granted bail in the ED case but then left for a second bail fight after a last-minute arrest by the CBI.

Both Mr Singh and Mr Sisodia slammed the ED, pointing out that the agency has been “repeatedly reprimanded by the Supreme Court… that they should not be investigated with malice”.

“Despite this, today the ED reached the house of Amanatullah Khan early in the morning… at a time when his mother-in-law is suffering from cancer and undergoing an operation,” Mr Singh thundered, also criticizing the agency. Acting immediately on the six-year-old case.

Seeing the ruthlessness of ED @Khan Amanatullah Attending the ED’s check-up earlier, Manga time for them to move forward, his mother-in-law’s cancer prompts him to rush home early in the morning.@Khan Amantullah Who is not against but Modi’s Dictatorship and ED Kindagardi both… pic.twitter.com/GyhduaghJB

— Sanjay Singh AAP (@SanjayAzadSln) September 2, 2024

The allegations against Amanatullah Khan date back to 2016, when the CBI filed the case. Mr Singh announced that the central agency had not arrested the AAP leader despite a lengthy investigation. “He did not commit any crime so CBI did not arrest him… but even then ED did not close his case.”

Mr Khan was granted bail by Delhi’s Rouse Avenue court in April; which was allegedly absent from the ED’s summons in the Wakf Board money laundering case

“This is the only job left for the ED…” declared Mr. Sisodia, repeating what many have claimed – that the ruling BJP uses federal agencies to harass rivals, especially ahead of elections.

“…to crush every anti-BJP voice and jail those who don’t,” Mr Sisodia said, a statement echoed by party colleague and Delhi Health Minister Sourav Bharadwaj, who linked the ED’s action against Mr Khan to the assembly elections. Due to the city early next year.

with input from organizations

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