Two Arrested for Dubious Funding of Rs. 2 Crore to Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party
While there have been a slew of complaints related to misappropriation of funds against Kejriwal’s AAP, police said the investigation will continue.
By Rakesh Raman
The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police has revealed that 2 persons have been arrested for allegedly donating Rs 2 crore to Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) through shell companies formed on the basis of fabricated documents.
The police said Friday (August 20) that the arrested persons include a chartered accountant (CA) Sudhanshu Bansal and Mukesh Kumar who were allegedly indulged in forming shell companies by procuring Director Identification Number (DIN) on the basis of fabricated documents and photographs.
According to the police, the arrests were made in connection with a case registered on the basis of a complaint from Registrar of Companies (RoC), New Delhi. The complaint mentioned the names of four companies that had allegedly donated Rs 50 lakhs each to Kejriwal’s AAP in April 2014.
In its complaint, according to a Times of India (TOI) report, the RoC alleged that the four companies — Goldmine Buildcon Pvt Ltd, Skyline Metal and Alloys Pvt Ltd, Sun Vision Agencies Pvt Ltd, and Infolance Software Solutions Ltd — were bogus.
The TOI report quotes Joint Commissioner of Police (EOW) Dr OP Mishra who said that during the investigation it was found that the four companies did not exist at the address available with the ROC record.
The case was registered at EOW Police Station, Delhi on November 21, 2015 under Section 420 (Cheating and dishonestly), 467 (forgery of valuable security, will), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (Using as genuine a forged document), and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The police said that ROC filed the complaint after taking up a suo-moto inquiry in February 2015, when the issue of donation by the four companies to AAP was covered by the media.
In 2017, a sacked AAP minister Kapil Mishra had alleged “massive irregularities” in the funding of AAP and raised questions about the “suspicious” donation of Rs. 2 crore to the party. He had also claimed that several shell companies had given money to AAP and Kejriwal’s party knew it.
Earlier, in 2015, Dr. Munish Raizada – who has been a part of India Against Corruption (IAC) movement and AAP – was removed from the party when he started questioning the shady handling of funds by Kejriwal and AAP.
On Raizada’s complaint, social activist and IAC leader Anna Hazare had also written a rebuke letter to Kejriwal for misappropriation of party funds. But AAP ignored the letter and continued working in a dishonest manner. Raizada was the co-convener of AAP’s Chicago-based NRI Cell.
While there have been a slew of complaints related to misappropriation of funds against Kejriwal’s AAP, police said the investigation will continue to unearth a bigger racket, if any.
Last year, AAP had decided to defy a notice from Delhi’s anti-corruption body Lokayukta which had asked AAP MLAs to reveal the details of their assets. While bureaucratic and political corruption is rampant in Delhi, reports suggest that the office of Lokayukta had received 41 complaints of corruption against the AAP legislators. The complaints were against AAP MLAs as well as ministers.
In the Delhi Assembly election of 2020, Kejriwal’s AAP had fielded 36 of the 70 candidates who have serious charges against them. AAP had the maximum number of candidates who are involved in criminal cases.
By Rakesh Raman, who is a national award-winning journalist and social activist. He is the founder of a humanitarian organization RMN Foundation which is working in diverse areas to help the disadvantaged and distressed people in the society. He also creates and publishes a number of digital publications and research reports on different subjects. These publications include the “Covid Health Bulletin” that covers global coronavirus news and views.
