BJP backs claim by ex-AAP group, says party using black money to fund campaign

The BJP on Monday accused the AAP of masquerading as an honest party while using black money to fund their campaigning, as alleged by the AAP Volunteer Action Manch (AVAM), a group of volunteers who left the party in August last year. [caption id=“attachment_2075823” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] BJP said AAP was using black money as funds. AFP[/caption] “We knew right from the beginning that AAP leaders are liars,” said BJP leader Piyush Goyal at a press conference. “The AVAM group has shown how AAP used black money to fund themselves… It’s now out in the open that AAP accepts black money,” said Goyal. The AVAM group, in a press conference on Monday, alleged that the AAP indulged in money laundering. The group claimed that four shell or bogus companies made donations of Rs 50 lakh each through cheques to the party at midnight on 5 April, 2014. “Here are companies which have laid there accounts to the due authorities for two years but not for the third year,” said BJP leader Nirmala Sitharaman. “And even in those two years, the companies did not make any profits. “The companies remained dormant for two years. Yet, they were able to give donations to AAP worth Rs 50 lakh each,” said Sitharaman. “Today, AAP is a party which stands exposed for encouraging a facade of mechanisms through which you are receiving money from unauthorised sources.” Sitharaman also alleged that since all the four companies had the same set of directors, the directors had been appointed by the AAP. “We allege these companies are AAPs factories,” she said. “These are shell companies which you have created for running these nefarious activities,” she alleged. BJP also slammed AAP over their claim that any donation exceeding Rs 9,99,999 would be verified by a political affairs committee set up by the AAP. “This political affairs committee, which consists of senior AAP leaders like Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia, cleared funds worth Rs 50 lakh each from companies which had been making losses for two years,” said Sitharaman. “Answers from the AAP alone will not help,” she said. “AAP should stop lecturing other parties about the high moral ground they are seated on.” BJP leader and former AAP member Shazia Ilmi also took a dig at AAP and said the night on which AAP got those donations can be called “hawala at midnight”. “They talk about an internal Lokpal. But no one worries about checking donations worth Rs 2 crores. Kejriwal is hiding behind a false image of honesty and trying to fool people. As soon as the Anna campaign got over, talks behind closed doors started happening. That’s why people started leaving the party,” said Ilmi. She also said these charges against the AAP were just “the tip of the iceberg”. “We are getting more facts. We will reveal more information to you later,” she said. Reacting to the accusations, AAP leader Atishi Marlena had told Times Now, “We welcome a probe by any investigative agency.” “We are ready for any investigation. Our funding has been inspected by both the UPA and NDA governments,” Hindustan Times quoted another AAP leader Yogendra Yadav as saying. “This ploy to harm us will not harm us. It is like the story of the boy who cried wolf,” Yadav said, according to HT.