Controversy’s favourite child Amanatullah Khan landed in soup again following his arrest over clashes with the Delhi police during South Delhi Municipal Corporation’s (SDMC) demolition drive on Thursday. A day after the AAP MLA was arrested for trying to stop the SDMC’s anti-encroachment drive in Madanpur Khadar, the Delhi Police on Friday declared the AAP legislator as a history-sheeter and “bad character of Jamia Nagar area.”
Clashes broke out on Thursday between locals led by Khan and police personnel as the crowd tried to block SDMC’s ongoing drive. After opening his history sheet, the Station House Officer (SHO) of Jamia Nagar called him a “habitual criminal who has been involved in land grabbing and hurt offences” while stating that Khan’s activities needed to be kept under surveillance considering his criminal past. Khan is no stranger to controversy and has been in the news for wrong reasons on several occasions in the past.
Who is Amanatullah Khan?
Born in Meerut district of Uttar Pradesh, Amanatullah Khan represents the Okhla assembly constituency in the seventh Delhi legislative Assembly. In the 2020 Delhi election, Amanatullah defeated Braham Singh of the BJP and Parvez Hashmi of the Congress by a comfortable margin. Having unsuccessfully contested the Delhi election on an LJP ticket in 2013, Amanatullah Khan’s debut as an AAP candidate saw him crush his nearest rival by a margin of 60,000 votes.
On July 24, 2016, Khan was arrested for allegedly threatening a woman. She had filed a case stating that Khan threatened her with “dire consequences.” A case was registered against the AAP MLA under Sections 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) and 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at the Jamia Nagar police station. Khan was kept under police custody for a day before being released on bail a few days later.
In 2018, an FIR was registered against Khan for allegedly assaulting a Congress social worker in the aftermath of a clash between Congress and AAP workers. In the same year, another case was filed by Delhi Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash against Khan and his counterpart Prakash Jarwal for physically assaulting Prakash at Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s residence.
In April 2020, Delhi Police has registered an FIR against AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan for allegedly threatening the Mahant of Dasna temple Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati after Saraswati’s alleged remarks against Prophet Muhammad and Islam.
