New Delhi: The latest FIR against Aam Aadmi Party MLA Amanatullah Khan and his aides have charged them with assaulting and threatening Delhi Police personnel and obstructing the court-ordered arrest of a proclaimed offender from the Jamia Nagar locality.
On Monday, the South East District police lodged the FIR, naming Amanatullah and his three aides, based on the complaint of the Delhi Police Crime Branch unit. Several teams, including personnel from the South East District, Crime Branch, and Special Cell, are now conducting searches in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan to nab Amanatullah.
However, Amanatullah’s cousin brother Meenatullah Khan said that the MLA has written a letter to Delhi Police Commissioner Sanjay Arora, saying he was not hiding and that the police were falsely implicating him. ThePrint hasn’t seen a copy of the letter.
Amanatullah won the Okhla assembly constituency for the third consecutive time in the state election concluded Saturday despite his party losing the capital to the BJP.
Over the years, Amatullah Khan has had 18 criminal cases slapped against him and was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), as well.
ThePrint looks into his controversies—present and past.
‘You don’t know who I am’
At 3 pm Monday, a sub-inspector-led team of the Delhi Police Crime Branch closed in around the Al Taqwa Mosque under the Jamia Nagar police circle after receiving inputs about the presence of Shavez Khan in the area. Accused in a 2018 attempt to murder case, Khan was declared a proclaimed offender by a local court.
However, shortly after the police caught ahold of Khan, Amanatullah reached the spot with some 20-25 of his supporters and quizzed the police on the purpose of their visit, the sub-inspector said in his complaint.
According to the FIR registered at Jamia Nagar police station—a copy of which ThePrint has seen—Amanatullah, along with his aides, Laddan, Muneer, and Farman, has been booked under the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita sections 221, 121 (1), and 132—which deal with obstructing, hurting and assaulting public servants—and 191 (2) (rioting), 190 (unlawful assembly), 263 (b) ( obstruction of a lawful arrest), 351 (3) (criminal intimidation), 111 (organised crime).
In his police complaint, the sub-inspector (SI) said the police showed their ID cards when confronted by Amanatullah, but the MLA dismissed them, saying, “We do not consider such police and court as anything.”
“Amanatullah and his companions threatened us that ‘this area is ours and you should leave from here quietly or else it will be difficult for you people to get out of here alive and one of ours will be killed’,” the SI said in the complaint.
According to the SI, Amantullah said: “So many people will gather on hearing the voice that no one will know where you people have gone, and your police and court papers will remain here”. “You don’t know who I am, I will get your uniform removed, and it doesn’t matter to me if one more case is filed against me, I will finish you off, and no one will find a witness to this, and even if one finds one, I will take care of it myself.”
The SI said in his complaint, “Amanatullah and his companions pushed and grappled with us and got Shavej released and took him away and while leaving they threw away HC (what is that) Roshan’s I-card. Amanatullah Khan’s companions included Laddan, Muneer and Farman.”
Requesting criminal proceedings against Amanatullah and his aides, the SI further said that the accused obstructed Delhi Police in discharging their duties, and their heckling allowed a wanted criminal to flee.
On the contrary, Meenatullah claimed that Shavez was cooperating in the investigation and that the crime branch personnel should have brought a local police team with them.
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Not the first brush with the police
As a lawmaker, Amanatullah’s first brush with Delhi Police happened in 2018 when the AAP was still in power in the state. He was arrested on allegations of assaulting Anshu Prakash, the then-chief secretary of Delhi.
He was arrested in February 2018 after Prakash accused AAP MLAs, including Amanatullah, of thrashing him during a late-night meeting at the residence of the then-chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.
In its chargesheet filed before a lower court, the Delhi police named Kejriwal, his deputy Manish Sisodia, and 11 AAP MLAs. They were Amanatullah Khan, Prakash Jarwal, Nitin Tyagi, Rituraj Govind, Sanjeev Jha, Ajay Dutt, Rajesh Rishi, Rajesh Gupta, Madan Lal, Praveen Kumar, and Dinesh Mohaniya.
All of the accused, except Amanatullah and Jarwal, were discharged by the court during the proceedings.
Later in May 2022, the South East District police arrested Amanatullah, along with five others, on charges of rioting and obstructing public servants in discharging duties during a demotion drive by the erstwhile South Delhi Municipal Corporation. The drive turned violent when a scuffle broke out between people led by Amanatullah and police personnel.
Months later, he was discharged of all the charges by a lower court in 2023, citing lack of evidence.
Then, in September 2023, the Delhi government’s Anti Corruption Branch lodged a case against Amanatullah’s aides on allegations of obstructing officers during a raid at the MLA’s premise as part of a probe into irregularities in recruitments to the Delhi Waqf Board and and misappropriation of waqf funds.
In May 2024, the Uttar Pradesh Police booked Amanatullah Khan and his son on allegations of assaulting a petrol pump staff who denied the MLA service after he jumped the queue.
The ED arrested Amanatullah in September 2024 and charge-sheeted him for alleged misappropriation of the Delhi Waqf Board funds during his tenure as its chairman.
The court granted Amanutullah bail in the ED case in November last year, and since then, he has been out of jail.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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