India News | Delhi Waqf Board Irregularities: HC Seeks Amanatullah Khan's Stand on ACB Plea Challenging Bail

New Delhi, Nov 4 (PTI) The Delhi High Court on Friday sought the stand of AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan on a plea by the Anti-Corruption Branch challenging his bail in a case related to alleged irregularities in the Delhi Waqf Board.

Justice Yogesh Khanna issued a notice on the ACB's petition for cancellation of the bail granted to Khan by the trial court earlier this year.

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According to the FIR, Khan, during his tenure as chairman of the Delhi Waqf Board, had indulged in several irregularities, including illegally recruiting 32 people by violating all norms and government guidelines.

The then CEO of the Delhi Waqf Board had clearly given a statement and issued a memorandum against such illegal recruitment, the FIR said.

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In its petition, the ACB said there are grave and serious allegations against the AAP leader which attract a maximum punishment of life imprisonment and the trial court ordered his release by "completely ignoring" the parameters for granting bail.

It asserted that the investigation is at a "very delicate stage" and the present case requires that Khan be taken into custody on account of the "clout and influence" enjoyed by him, the likelihood of the offences being repeated and the reasonable apprehension of evidence tampering.

The plea also said that the trial court "ignored the criminal antecedents" of Khan and that it should not have given a finding on the material collected by the ACB at this stage.

On September 28, the trial court had granted bail to Khan, saying "prima facie the allegations against the accused are not grave and serious in nature".

The trial court had said that according to the statement of the Delhi Waqf Board's CEO, it was "prima facie shown that the accused being the chairman of Delhi Waqf Board went ahead with the recruitment in violation of the instruction of the Delhi government just to favour his relatives and members of his constituency". However, there was no material on record to show that Khan had received a bribe from any contractual employee.

Regarding leasing the board's properties, the trial court noted that prima facie no loss was caused to the public exchequer with regard to the creation of tenancies.

Further, the court said that entrustment of funds to the accused or their misappropriation is not made out.

The trial court had also said that as a sitting MLA, Khan was not a flight risk and there was no chance of tampering with already seized primary evidence, which was documentary in nature.

The ACB arrested Khan after conducting raids at his premises on September 16.

The FIR alleged that as chairman of the Delhi Waqf Board, Khan rented out several of its properties amid allegations of corruption and favouritism, it added.

The FIR also alleged that Khan misappropriated funds of the Waqf Board comprising grants-in-aid from the Delhi government.

The matter will be heard next in December.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)