On Wednesday, a Court in Delhi while granting bail to Aam Admi Party (AAP) MLA & Delhi Waqf Board chairman Amanatullah Khan in case pertaining to alleged irregularities in the board including recruitment of 32 people & financial embezzlement observed that prima facie, said allegations against Khan are “not grave & serious in nature”.

Special judge Vikas Dhull in the order remarked, “From the aforesaid discussion, it can be prima facie held that allegations against accused are not grave & serious in nature.”

However, the Court made it clear that “nothing expressed herein above shall tantamount to expressing any opinion on the merits of this case”.

The order was reserved by the Court for Wednesday after hearing the arguments on Tuesday.

The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) represented by additional public prosecutor Atul Shrivastava had opposed the bail of Khan claiming that the decisions made by Khan to rent the properties belonging to the board as chairman led to the loss to the exchequer.

However, the Court after examining the submissions from the ACB & senior advocate Rahul Mehra who represented Khan observed that prima facie, there is “no material on record to show that as to what extent loss was caused to the exchequer by grant of tenancy by Waqf Board during the tenure of present accused”.

In the FIR registered against Khan in Jan 2020 by the ACB claimed that he had carried out recruitments of 32 employees on contractual & let out Waqf properties to the tune of Rs 100 Crores to unauthorized in violation of the rules & regulations of the Waqf Act, 1995, to favour his relatives & members of his constituency causing loss to the exchequer in granting tenancies of the Waqf properties & mis-appropriation of Rs 3.20 Crores in the form of salaries paid to the contractual employees.

The court observed that there is also no material on record to show that contractual employees were being paid salary without performing the duties assigned to them & remarked that at this stage there is no evidence to show that any bribe was paid by any of the employees in securing a job as a contractual employee.

The Court said that “There is no material on record to show that any of these recruited employees had paid any bribe to the accused in securing the employment. There is also no material on record to show that these employees had withdrawn their salaries from the Waqf Fund without doing any work or they were not qualified for the job. It has also come on record that previously also, Delhi Waqf Board had recruited employees without there being any rules & regulations".

Examining the allegations of bribery against the MLA the Court remarked that after careful examination of the statement, there is no direct allegation of bribery against Khan as there was no statement on record to show that said amount was collected on behalf of the AAP leader.

The Court while granting bail to Khan rejected the ACB contention that the AAP leader has violated the conditions of the bail he got in March 2018 observed that out of other 24 cases against him, he has been acquitted in 20 cases & remarked that there is no evidence to show that accused had obtained acquittal in the previous cases by threatening the complainant as submitted by the ACB.

Further adding in the order that Khan is “not a flight risk” as he is a sitting MLA & he has attended the previous 20 cases in which he has been acquitted which also shows that he has “submitted himself to the process of law & has not absconded”.
The court also added that there is no chance of tampering of the evidence as primarily evidence in the present case is documentary in nature which already stands seized by the ACB.

Khan was sent to judicial custody by the court on Monday for 14 days in connection with financial & other irregularities at the board.

The AAP MLA was arrested by the ACB on Sept 16 & was sent to custody for four days following which the ACB moved a fresh application seeking custody of the MLA for 10 more days on Sept 21 following which the court allowed five days custody to the ACB.

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