New Delhi: The broad charges that arrested AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan faces are owning property through his proxies and creating parallel documentary evidence to mislead probe into the financial irregularities in the Delhi Waqf Board.
In its remand application seeking custody of Khan, the Enforcement Directorate has mentioned that it is in possession of a purported white diary corroborating the cash exchange between the former Delhi Waqf Board chairman and his aides.
Additionally, the agency informed the court that as many as 14 summons were issued to him for questioning as well as his conduct to justify his arrest while requesting his custody for 10 days.
The Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Okhla MLA was arrested Monday morning by the ED’s Delhi Zonal wing. Later in the day, the Rouse Avenue Court granted his custody to the ED for four days in connection with the money laundering case.
The arrest came eight months after the ED filed a prosecution complaint explaining the routing of alleged proceedings of crime generated through irregularities during his chairmanship of the Waqf Board between 2016 and 2021.
In November last year, the ED arrested Khan’s associates Zeeshan Haider, Daud Nasir and mediator Jawed Imam Siddiqui and his wife Kausar Imam Siddiqui in connection with its probe.
The ED’s case is based on an FIR filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in November 2016, but later three more FIRs by the Delhi government’s Anti Corruption Branch and Delhi Police were clubbed as part of the probe.
Also Read: What’s the 8-yr-old Delhi Waqf Board case in which AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan has been arrested by ED
Two sale deeds, white diary
The ED has alleged that Jawed owned a 1,200 square yards property in Delhi’s Jamia Nagar area and that it was transferred to Zeeshan Haider and Daud Nasir in September 2021 in the name of their firms Sky Power and Sarah Constructions. This property was initially in the name of Jawed’s wife.
While the trio produced a sale deed showing value of the property at only Rs 13.4 crore, a copy of the sale deed from seized mobile of Zeeshan pegged the value at Rs 36 crore, according to the ED.
The ED alleged that the entries of cash transactions made by Kausar Imam Siddqui alias Laddan, who allegedly acted as a fund manager for Khan, in the seized diary corroborated the value of the property at Rs 36 crore.
The federal agency had alleged that Kausar also admitted the price of property at Rs 36 crore.
“Investigation revealed that the agreement having shown the consideration value as Rs 13.40 crore has been created at a later stage without any witness to mislead the investigation. Further, this false sale agreement was created with the purpose of concealing the actual sale transaction value so that the cash infused in the sale of this property which is proceeds of crime in the hands of The Arrestee/ Accused and his associate persons may be concealed,” the ED remand application reads.
ThePrint has a copy of the remand application.
“This false sale agreement has been created in connivance with Amanatullah Khan, Zeeshan Haider, Daud Nasir and Jawed Imam Siddiqui so that they can actively conceal the actual transaction value of the property on paper and launder the proceeds of crime infused in the property,” the investigating agency added.
To establish the link between Khan and the four accused arrested in November, the ED has alleged that Khan and Zeeshan jointly owned a property purchased in 2012.
Additionally, the agency argued that Zeeshan paid Rs 12.3 crore, including Rs 8 crore in cash, despite breaching Rs 10 lakh mark as income level only once since the financial year 2014-15 while his firm Sky Power declared zero gross income for three years before the transaction took place in September 2021.
“Hence, it can be concluded that the financial health of Zeeshan Haider was not in line with the capacity to purchase this land measuring 1,200 square yards. Investigation also revealed that Zeeshan Haider and Amanatullah Khan were holding joint ownership in certain properties. This establishes that they were closely associated with each other and engaged in property transactions jointly. Investigation conducted into the Tikona Park property (show) Zeeshan was undertaking the transactions with Jawed on the behest of Khan,” the remand said.
The ED added that the diary— which was seized during the raid at the Okhla MLA’s house in Jamia Nagar—revealed that Zeehsan had signed transactions of Rs 36 crore pertaining to the property.
“Hence it is concluded that the cash amounts so shown to be paid by Zeeshan Haider in said properties is nothing but the proceeds of crime which came from Amanatullah Khan,” it said.
(Edited by Tony Rai)