Centre targeting our leaders, MLAs; Amanatullah arrested without proof: AAP

AAP on Monday said its MLA Amanatullah Khan has been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a "false" case and the more the ruling BJP tries to suppress the Arvind Kejriwal-led party's voice, the more vocal it will be.

AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh claimed Khan was arrested "without any evidence".

The ED on Monday arrested Khan, the MLA from Delhi's Okhla, in a money laundering case against him and some others linked to him, official sources said.

Singh opposed the AAP MLA's arrest, questioning if it was a "comedy or probe" by the agencies.

"Is this an investigation or a comedy?' he asked in a post on X and claimed the CBI filed charge sheet in the Waqf Board case against Khan in 2016 and six years later said in its charge sheet "no economic offence has been committed".

The Anti Corruption Branch(ACB) and the ED filed cases in the matter and Khan got bail after arrest by the ACB. The ED raided his house in 2023 but nothing was found, and in 2024 he was interrogated for 13 hours by the agency, claimed Singh.

Khan in a statement said that his mother-in-law is a cancer patient, who underwent surgery four days ago and he had sought four weeks' time from the ED for her treatment.

"Today, these people have come to arrest me. Will the ED deputy director take responsibility in front of the SHO that if they arrest me, it will not have a bad effect on my mother-in-law's health and she will not die?" the MLA said in a video message posted on X before his arrest.

Khan claimed he has "fully cooperated" with the ED.

"Earlier in this case, the ACB and the CBI have also done their investigation and given me a clean chit. The ED had searched my house in this case on 10 October 2023, he said.

"Revolutionaries will not bow down to the tyranny of a dictator. The BJP's ED took Aam Aadmi Party MLA @KhanAmanatullah in custody in a false case. The more the BJP people tries to suppress us, the more vocal our voice will be," AAP said in a post on X in Hindi.

Singh said this "bullying" by the BJP would cost the party dearly in the Delhi Assembly polls.

Khan was arrested forcibly "without any evidence", the senior AAP leader alleged in a post on X in Hindi. Singh met Khan's family and assured it the party stands firmly with them.

Senior party leader and former deputy CM Manish Sisodia hit out at the ED in a post on X, saying the agency was reduced to only "suppressing every voice against the BJP" and arresting those who do not break or get suppressed.

Delhi minister and senior AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj in a press conference alleged that the Centre was "deliberately" targeting AAP leaders and MLAs.

"The Centre has only one aim - to arrest the AAP leaders, ministers and MLAs. The PMLA provisions are quite stringent and it is difficult to secure bail in them. They want to ensure that AAP MLAs are not present in their constituencies at the time of the Assembly elections," Bharadwaj said.

Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva questioned why AAP leaders were "anxious" if Khan, accused of "illegal" recruitment in the Delhi Waqf Board, was innocent. In India, the rule of law prevails, and anyone who indulges in corruption has to be answerable for it, Sachdeva said, asking AAP leaders to introspect.

"The Aam Aadmi Party has a long list of criminals and corrupt individuals, and whenever action is taken against them, they start making noise. Today, once again, that drama has unfolded before everyone," he charged.

The money laundering case against Khan stems from two FIRs, one registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation in the Wakf Board-related "irregularities" and another by the Delhi Anti-Corruption Branch related to a case of alleged possession of disproportionate assets.