Delhi Lt. Governor VK Saxena has granted sanction for the prosecution of Amanatullah Khan, MLA, and Mehboob Aalam by the CBI for irregularities in the Delhi Waqf Board. They are charged with criminal offences including deliberate and criminal violation of rules, regulations and law and misuse of position and causing financial losses to the exchequer, while serving as Chairman and CEO of the board respectively.

The Lt. Governor has granted the sanction under Section 19 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and Section 197 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.

The SDM (HQ), Revenue Department, GNCTD had in November, 2016, had filed a complaint alleging arbitrary and illegal appointments to various existing and non-existing posts by Amanatullah Khan in Delhi Waqf Board. The CBI had undertaken the investigation that revealed sufficient prosecutable evidence of commission of criminal offences and had sought prosecution sanction of the Lt. Governor (the competent authority in such matters as per law established) in May, 2022.

As per investigation of the CBI, Amanatullah Khan in connivance with Mehboob Aalam abused his official position and deliberately ignored rules and laid down procedures to cause huge losses to the government exchequer by arbitrarily appointing individuals by manipulating recruitment procedures to favour the chosen individuals over thousands of deserving people who could have got employed, had the process of appointment been transparent and impartial. The basic principle of right to equality and opportunity was bypassed by Amanatullah Khan to provide undeserving and unauthorized benefits to specific pre-identified persons.

The CBI investigations have found that there is sufficient evidence to prosecute Khan and Aalam under sections 13 (1)(d) and Section 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 read with Section 120-B of the Indian Penal Code 1860, before a Court of Law.

After carefully going through the records placed on file that prima facie provide sufficient evidence of culpability of Amanatullah Khan and Mehboob Aalam and warrant grant of prosecution sanction for launching criminal proceedings against them, the Lt. Governor has accorded such sanction.

With this, the proverbial ‘tip of the ice-berg’ involving the rampantly prevalent practice of appointing favoured individuals without following the due process and depriving the common eligible citizen of Delhi of their basic right to equality and employment, is expected to be addressed.