Aam Aadmi Party MLA Amanatullah Khan on Wednesday denied that he was absconding and claimed he was being framed in a false case pertaining to allegedly blocking a police team that was trying to arrest a man in an attempt to murder case, reported India Today.

This came after the Delhi Police conducted searches at multiple locations to arrest Khan. He was booked on Monday.

“I am in my Assembly constituency, I am not in hiding,” Khan reportedly told the police in a letter on Wednesday. “The person whom the Delhi police came to arrest is out on bail. The police is implicating me in this false case to hide their mistake.”

The police have claimed that the Okhla MLA’s phone was switched off immediately after the complaint was registered against him, reported India Today.

On Monday, a Crime Branch team headed by Inspector Sunil Kalkhande had taken a man, Shavez Khan, in custody and was in the process of arresting him, when the MLA and his supporters allegedly blocked them.

Amanatullah Khan has been booked under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita pertaining to obstructing a public servant, using criminal force against a public servant and voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servants from doing their duty.

The case against Shavez Khan was filed in January 2018, the Hindustan Times reported. He and his associates were accused of having assaulted three persons because of personal enmity, leaving one of them severely injured.

Shavez Khan had been arrested in the case but was later released on bail. However, he allegedly began skipping court dates and police summons, due to which the police tried to arrest him again.

In the recently concluded Delhi Assembly election, Amanatullah Khan emerged victorious from the Okhla constituency, defeating the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Manish Chaudhary by 23,639 votes.