Volunteer group claims money laundering by AAP, party says open to probe

The atmosphere in Delhi, ahead of the 7-February polls, just got more intense with a group of former AAP activists who call themselves the AAP Volunteer Action Manch (AVAM) alleging that the party was indulging in money laundering. According to a CNN-IBN report, AVAM, in a press conference against Arvind Kejriwal at Delhi’s Press Club, said dummy entries were made in AAP’s funding to evade taxes and that some donations to the party were made through bogus companies. The group claimed that on 5 April, 2014, four bogus companies made donations of Rs 50 lakh each through cheques to AAP at midnight. The companies made those donations despite not having earned profits for two years, according to the allegations. [caption id=“attachment_2075387” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Shruti Dhapola/Firstpost[/caption] Meanwhile Times Now reports that AVAM says they have proof to validate their claims against the party. Reacting to the accusations, AAP leader Atishi Marlena told Times Now, “We welcome a probe by any investigative agency.” The party has always maintained that all the details about their financial transactions were transparent and readily available on their website. However, this is not the first time that questions have been raised against the source of AAP’s funding. Earlier, right before the previous Delhi polls, a petition was filed in the Delhi High Court on 9 October, 2013 seeking registration of a criminal case against AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal for allegedly accepting foreign funds in violation of the law. The court had directed the central government to go through details of the money donated to the AAP since its inception on 26 November, 2012 and to take action if anything was found in violation of the FCRA. The plea had named Kejriwal, advocates Shanti Bhushan and Prashant Bhushan and party member Manish Sisodia. AAP had told the court that it was the only party whose financial records and other details were open for public view and it got donations amounting to Rs 30 crore from Indian citizens only, out of which Rs 8.5 crore came from NRIs. However the Centre on 7 May, 2014 had told the Delhi High Court that its probe into the foreign funding received by the AAP is underway, and donations received by the party from Indians living abroad was not in violation of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA). The then UPA government had told the court that eight people with foreign addresses made donations to Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Their passport numbers as mentioned in the contribution report of Election Commission were checked and it was found that they possess Indian passports and NRIs holding Indian passports are not foreign sources, it added. With agency inputs