In yet another setback to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his party, of which he is the national convenor, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has alleged that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) received `7.08 crore in foreign funds from 2014 to 2022, allegedly violating the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), the Representation of People Act (RPA), and the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
In its dossier to the Union Home Ministry, the ED has revealed that the AAP received funds from multiple donors in USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Oman and other countries.
According to the ED, the real identity of foreign donors was concealed in AAP's books to circumvent restrictions on foreign donations to political parties, with donations directly deposited into AAP's IDBI bank account.
The ED investigation revealed that multiple donors have used the same passport numbers for donation, e-mail IDs, mobile numbers and credit cards to donate to the AAP.
The ED has shared all the information with the Union Home Ministry relating to its investigations with details of donors, such as names of the donor, country of donor, passport number, amount donated, mode of donation and bank account number of receiver, billing name, billing address, billing telephone numbers, billing e-mail, time & date of donation and payment gateway used etc, gathered during the investigation under PMLA, 2002.
The ED, in its investigation, claimed several instances of irregularities in the collection of foreign funds by the AAP and its leaders and accused some of them, including AAP MLA, Durgesh Pathak, of siphoning off the funds collected during a fund-raising event in Canada in 2016, for personal benefits.
The directorate has substantiated the allegations through the contents of e-mails exchanged between various AAP volunteers and functionaries, including Aniket Saxena (coordinator of AAP overseas India), Kumar Vishwas (then convenor of AAP overseas India), Kapil Bhardwaj (then AAP member) and Durgesh Pathak.
The investigations so far revealed that not only amounts were collected through fund-raising campaigns in the USA and Canada and identities of actual donors have been concealed in the books of accounts maintained by the AAP in order to circumvent the restrictions imposed under FCRA on donations by foreign citizens to a political party. But also the analysis of data of foreign donations revealed that multiple donors have used the same passport numbers for donation, used the same passport numbers, e-mail IDs, mobile numbers and credit cards to donate to AAP.
The investigation also revealed that the AAP has set up a body, AAP Overseas lndia along with volunteers in countries like USA, Canada, Australia etc, whose primary task was to mobilize foreign funds to AAP India.
It is also revealed that a target of overseas donation of Rs 50 crore was fixed for these volunteers in 2016. The ED said donations through email IDs and mobile numbers of Canadian nationals donations totalling to Rs 51,15,044 have been received using e-mail IDs and mobile numbers of 19 Canadian nationals.
However, the names of these Canadian nationals and their nationality have been concealed and have not been reflected correctly in the records. Instead, different names have been mentioned against these donations and this was intentionally done by AAP to hide donations by foreign nationals which is in violation of Section 3 of FCRA, 2010 and Section 298 of Representation of People Act 1951.
Sources said this amount has been raised in violation of provisions of FCRA, 2010 and Representation of the People Act, 1951 by concealing, mis-declaring and manipulating the identities & nationalities of foreign donors as well as several other facts relating to foreign donations.
The FCRA violation and other irregularities in receiving foreign funds by the AAP emerged during the course of an investigation in a case registered in Fazilka district of Punjab against an international drugs cartel involved in smuggling of heroin from Pakistan through the barbed fencing on the Indo-Pakistan border.
In this connection, a Special Court in Fazilka had issued summons to the then AAP MLA from Bholath in Punjab, Sukhpal Singh Khaira as an accused to face the trial. Khaira in his statement disclosed that the foreign funding of dollar 1,19,000 was raised during overseas fund-raising campaign in USA organised by AAP, in April-May, 2015 just before the upcoming Punjab Assembly elections 2017.
According to the ED, 155 people residing abroad made donations totalling Rs 1.02 crore on 404 occasions using 55 passport numbers. As many as 71 donors used 21 mobile numbers for making donations totalling Rs 99.90 lakh on 256 occasions, and 75 donors residing abroad used 15 credit cards for making donations totalling Rs 19.92 lakh on 148 occasions.
Investigation has also revealed irregularities and improprieties on the part of AAP office-bearers and volunteers during overseas fund-raising campaigns. During a fund-raising event organised by AAP in Canada in 2016, an e-mail conversation took place between Aniket Saxena (coordinator of AAP Overseas India) and Kumar Vishwas then convenor of AAP Overseas India) which has revealed that Durgesh Pathak (currently AAP MLA in Delhi Legislative Assembly) and Kapil Bhardwaj AAP member) had asked Aniket to transfer the donation amount of dollar 29,000, collected during the fundraising programme, directly to Durgesh Pathak and Kapil Bhardwaj through Bhagwant Toor.
