The
Supreme Court Monday refused to entertain an anticipatory bail plea of AAP MLA
Amanatullah Khan in a money laundering case related to alleged irregularities
in the Delhi Waqf Board during his chairmanship.
A
bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta asked Khan to appear before
the Enforcement Directorate on Apr 18 at 11 am in the case.
The bench took exception
to certain observations made in the March 11 verdict of the Delhi High Court
with regard to the merit of the case and said it will not have any bearing in
the matter.
The
Okhla MLA had approached the Delhi High Court after his application for
anticipatory bail in the case was rejected by a trial court on March 1.
Khan
was not named as an accused in the charge sheet that the ED filed recently.
The
agency has named five people in its prosecution complaint (the ED's equivalent
of a charge sheet) that included three alleged associates of Khan -- Zeeshan
Haider, Daud Nasir and Jawed Imam Siddiqui.
Searches
were conducted in the case related to illegal recruitment of staff and alleged
illegitimate personal gains made by the accused by way of unfairly leasing Waqf
Board properties during 2018-2022 when Khan was its chairperson, the ED said.
Several
"incriminating" material in the form of physical and digital evidence
were seized during the raids, indicating Khan's involvement in the offence of
money laundering, the ED has said.