Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party’s fundings have come under questions on several occasions in the past. In December last year, anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare had written a letter to AAP chief to come clean on the donations received by the party.
This time, sacked Delhi minister Kapil Mishra has hurled a bombshell alleging that crores of unaccounted money were funnelled into the party coffer through shell companies via hawala transactions.
Mishra alleged that the AAP had received a total of Rs 2 crore from four sell companies (Rs 50 lakh from each) through hawala transactions on 5 April, 2014.
“These shell companies had ‘ghost directors’ who donated money to the party and converted black money into white. The AAP government awarded those companies with contracts and bestowed favours on people involved,” Mishra told a Press conference on Sunday brandishing a sheaf of documents.
“Through 461 bogus entries in AAP accounts, Rs 6.26 crore was deposited in 2014-15. There was only one chartered accountant for many of these shell companies,” he alleged.
Mishra claimed that AAP has illegally received donations to the tune of Rs 70 crore. The sacked minister alleged that of the 16 shell companies, that have donated to AAP, the registered addresses of directors of four companies are the same. Further, 189 shell companies were registered at the same address in Delhi’s Jasola, he further alleged. Several of these fake companies had accounts in the Axis Bank’s Krishna Nagar branch, he claimed.
In addition, there are eight foreign shell companies which funded the AAP heavily, the former Delhi water minister said. Mishra, who is currently on a hunger strike demanding the disclosure of the details of the foreign trips by five AAP leaders, said, “There is a direct correlation between the foreign travels of senior AAP leaders and the overseas donations received by the party. This is why I have been demanding foreign travel details of five AAP leaders. But the party is refusing to obelise,” Mishra said.
He further alleged that two AAP MLAs were directly associated with the shell companies which illegally funded the Kejriwal-led party.
Earlier, while pointing to another case of dubious funding received by AAP, the former Delhi minister said the party had received Rs90 lakh as donation from a an AAP supporter identified as Priya Bansal of Bengaluru for 2014-15 and 2015-16, but the tax payable on her income was a mere Rs4,000.
“All this happened with the knowledge of Arvind Kejriwal,” Mishra said.
The sacked Delhi minister said there is huge discrepancy in the money received by the AAP and the amount it declared before the Election Commission.
“In 2014-15, the AAP had Rs 65.5 crore in its bank account, but the Election Commission was informed about only Rs 32.4 crore, while the party put only Rs27.3 crore in the public domain,” he said. Similarly, in 2013-14, Rs 36 crore received in donations by AAP was not revealed to Election Commission, Mishra said. “The AAP had Rs 45.74 crore in its accounts in 2013-14, but declared on its website that it had only Rs 19.82 crore,” he added.
Disclosing that why Kejriwal was vociferously opposing Narendra Modi government’s demonetisation drive, Mishra said, “It was because of the demonetisation, the money laundering by AAP through shell companies was at stake.”
