AAP received Rs 7.08 crore in foreign funds from 2014-2022, violated forex norms: ED
PTC News Desk: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) notified the Union Home Ministry that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had accepted foreign contributions totaling Rs 7.08 crore between 2014 and 2022, and that they had allegedly violated the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Representation of People Act (RPA), and the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA).
The ED claims that money for AAP came from a number of contributors in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Kuwait.
The investigation agency claimed that the money was raised by falsifying, misrepresenting, and manipulating the identities and nationalities of foreign donors in addition to a number of other facts pertaining to international donations.
During its probe, the ED claimed to have found multiple instances of anomalies in the AAP and its leaders' acquisition of foreign donations. It also accused some of them, such as AAP MLA Durgesh Pathak, of embezzling money obtained from a fund-raising event held in Canada in 2016 for their own personal use.
Email correspondence between AAP volunteers and officials, such as Aniket Saxena (AAP Overseas India Coordinator), Kumar Vishwas (AAP Overseas India Convenor), Kapil Bhardwaj (AAP member), and Durgesh Pathak, was used by the agency to corroborate the charges.
According to the ED, the funds were obtained by means of fund-raising campaigns in the US and Canada, and the identities of the real donors were hidden in the AAP's books of accounts. This was done to get around the FCRA's prohibitions on foreign nationals donating to political parties.
The investigation agency claims that numerous donors made gifts to AAP using identical credit card information, email addresses, passport numbers, and mobile numbers.
The investigation agency claims that numerous donors made gifts to AAP using identical credit card information, email addresses, passport numbers, and mobile numbers.
The Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 required the ED to share all information it had gathered during its investigation with the Union Home Ministry. This information included the names, nationality, passport number, amount donated, method of donation, recipient's bank account number, billing name, billing address, billing phone number, billing email, time and date of the donation, and payment gateway used.
The investigation team also obtained information on donations by using Canadian citizens' email addresses and cellphone numbers.
The Enforcement Department (ED) reports that on 404 occasions, 155 foreign nationals using 55 passport numbers made donations totaling Rs 1.02 crore. A total of 256 times, 71 donors used 21 cell numbers to make donations totaling Rs 99.90 lakh, while 148 times, 75 foreign donors used 15 credit cards to make donations totaling Rs 19.92 lakh.
- With inputs from agencies
