The apex court asked the AAP leader to appear before the ED on April 18 at 11 am.

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain an anticipatory bail plea of AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan in a money laundering case and asked him to appear before the Enforcement Directorate (ED). Khan is facing a probe for alleged irregularities in the Delhi Waqf Board.

The apex court asked the AAP leader to appear before the ED on April 18 at 11 am. A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta took exception to certain observations made in the March 11 verdict of the Delhi High Court with regard to the merit of the case and said it will not have any bearing in the matter.

Khan had approached the Delhi HC after his application for anticipatory bail in the case was rejected by a trial court on March 1. The AAP leader was not named as an accused in the charge sheet filed by the ED. The agency has named five people in its prosecution complaint (the ED’s equivalent of a charge sheet) that included three alleged associates of Khan — Zeeshan Haider, Daud Nasir and Jawed Imam Siddiqui.

The central agency said the searches were conducted in the case related to illegal recruitment of staff and alleged illegitimate personal gains made by the accused by way of unfairly leasing Waqf Board properties during 2018-2022 when Khan was its chairperson.

Several “incriminating” material in the form of physical and digital evidence were seized during the raids, indicating Khan’s involvement in the offence of money laundering, the ED has said.