New Delhi, Jan 22 A Delhi court on Thursday acquitted former AAP minister Amanatullah Khan in a complaint filed by the Enforcement Directorate alleging that the leader deliberately skipped its summons issued during its investigation into the Delhi Waqf Board money laundering case.
Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Paras Dalal said that "not even 24 hours were given to the accused to appear before the ED, and that too against a summons that was never served on the accused as per the prescribed procedure."
The ED had alleged that it had issued summons on January 12, February 1 and February 2 in 2024, and the leader skipped them on each occasion.
In a 51-page order, the court said that the agency failed to understand the legal requirements and did not appreciate that the accused eventually appeared before it on April 18, 2024, in compliance with all previous notices.
"It is true that relief was not granted to the accused; however, the accused was well within his rights to wait until all his statutory rights were exhausted. The accused clearly was substantially complying with all the summons to supply the documents, and only upon appearing was seeking relief after submitting to the jurisdiction of the court of law," the judge said.
"There are procedural, legal and factual challenges to the complainant's case, which do not allow this Court to arrive at a conclusion of culpability of the accused," the court said.
The agency had filed a complaint under Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) Section 174 (non-attendance in obedience to an order from a public servant).
Additionally, in a similar complaint filed by the agency regarding the skipping of summons by Khan in April and June of 2024, the court discharged him in those matters, too, calling the accusations “groundless.”
