The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) received Rs 7.08 crore as foreign funds from 2014 to 2022 and allegedly violated the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), the Representation of People Act (RPA) and the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Enforcement Directorate (ED) told the Union Home Ministry.
The Arvind Kejriwal-led party dismissed the ED's allegations and asserted it was a political conspiracy to defame the party.
In its dossier, the ED told the Union Home Ministry that AAP received funds from multiple donors in countries, including the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait and Oman. The dossier came ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in Delhi on May 25.
The ED, in its investigation, claimed several instances of irregularities in the collection of foreign funds by 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 probe agency 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 the amounts collected through fund-raising campaigns in the US and Canada and the identities of actual donors were concealed in the books of accounts maintained by the AAP to circumvent the restrictions imposed under FCRA on donations by foreign citizens to a political party, it alleged.
According to the probe agency, multiple donors used the same passport numbers, e-mail IDs, mobile numbers and credit cards to donate to AAP.
The ED shared all details with the Union Home Ministry relating to its investigations with details of donors, such as names of the donor, country of the 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 and date of donation and payment gateway used, gathered during the investigation under Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.
The probe agency also gathered materials related to donations through e-mail IDs and mobile numbers of Canadian nationals.
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.
Donations through email IDs and mobile numbers of Canadian nationals' donations totalling Rs 51.15 lakh were received using e-mail IDs and mobile numbers of 19 Canadian nationals, the ED said.
However, the names of these Canadian nationals and their nationality were concealed and were not reflected correctly in the records, the probe agency alleged.
"Instead, different names have been mentioned against these donations and this was intentionally done by AAP to hide donations by foreign nationals, which violates Section 3 of FCRA, 2010 and Section 298 of Representation of People Act 1951," it stated.
"The amount was raised by concealing, misdeclaring and manipulating the identities and nationalities of foreign donors as well as several other facts relating to foreign donations," the probe agency alleged.
Another investigation revealed that AAP has set up a body called AAP Overseas lndia along with volunteers in countries like the US, Canada and Australia, whose primary task was to mobilise foreign funds for AAP. It was also revealed that a target of overseas donation of Rs 50 crore was fixed for volunteers in 2016.
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).
According to the ED, the conversation revealed that Durgesh Pathak and Kapil Bhardwaj, then AAP member, had asked Aniket to transfer the donation amount of 29,000 Canadian dollars, collected during a fundraising programme, directly to Durgesh Pathak and Kapil Bhardwaj through one Bhagwant Toor.
During an event organised by AAP in Toronto on November 22, 2015, which was attended by Durgesh Pathak, 15,000 Canadian dollars were raised and handwritten raw data sheets containing details of donors and amounts donated were sent by party volunteers in Canada to AAP Overseas India through e-mail.
The ED alleged that during an investigation, it was found that the names of these actual donors as mentioned in the handwritten data sheets were not reflected in the official records furnished by AAP.
In another event organised by AAP in Toronto on January 30, 2016, a total donation of 11,786 Canadian dollars was collected, of which 3,821 Canadian dollars were used as expenses for organising the event, the probe agency said.
"An amount of 7,955 Canadian dollars was sent to AAP in their IDBI bank account using the passports of 11 AAP Canada volunteers (Indian citizens) even though the said donation was claimed to be made by more than 200 people who had attended that event," the ED alleged.
Party leader and Delhi Minister Atishi alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was scared of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
"This is not ED's action, but it is BJP's. This is a case dating back many years and we gave our responses to the ED, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Union Home Ministry and the Election Commission," she said.
"This is yet another conspiracy by Modi ji to defame AAP. BJP is resorting to such things before every election. Many such false allegations will be made in the next four days," she asserted.
