AAP received foreign funding, money came from 8 countries including America, ED gave full report to Home Ministry

Aam Aadmi Party: ED (Enforcement Directorate) has claimed that Aam Aadmi Party has received foreign funding. In its report to the Home Ministry, ED has said that between 2014 and 2022, Aam Aadmi Party has received a total of Rs 7.08 crore foreign funding. This is a violation of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, Representation of the People Act and the Indian Penal Code. According to the report, AAP Aadmi Party has received money from many people living in America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Oman and other countries.

It has also been told in the report that Aam Aadmi Party hid the real identity of the people who gave money in its account. So that the ban on foreign funding for political parties can be avoided. The foreigners had deposited the money directly into the IDBI bank account of the Aam Aadmi Party. MLA Durgesh Pathak and other party leaders also deposited this money in their accounts.

Durgesh Pathak used the money

Different people sending funds from abroad had used the same passport number, credit card, email ID, mobile number. Foreign funding for political parties is banned under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act and the Representation of the People Act. This is a crime. ED found in its investigation that in the year 2016, Aam Aadmi Party leader Durgesh Pathak collected money through an event held in Canada and used this money for personal benefits.

How was it revealed?

All these revelations came during a smuggling case registered in Fazilka, Punjab. In this case, the agency was working on the drug cartel smuggling heroin from Pakistan to India. In this case, the Special Court of Fazilka had summoned AAP MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira from Bholanath, Punjab, making him an accused. When ED conducted a search operation at Khaira and his associates during the investigation, many suspicious documents were found from Khaira and his associates, which had complete information about foreign funding to the Aam Aadmi Party. The recovered papers included 4 type written papers and 8 hand written diary pages, which contained complete information of the USA donor.

Khaira accepted foreign funding

Through the papers, ED came to know that Aam Aadmi Party had received funding of 1 lakh 19 thousand dollars from America. Khaira had also told in his statement that before the assembly elections to be held in Punjab in 2017, Aam Aadmi Party had collected money by running a fund raising campaign in the USA. In this case, ED had summoned Aam Aadmi Party's National Secretary Pankaj Gupta, who had confessed that Aam Aadmi Party was taking foreign funding through checks and online portals.

Pankaj Gupta's data exposes the truth

Investigation of the data provided by Pankaj Gupta to ED revealed that it was a violation of the Foreign Donation Act. During that time, ED had come to know that 155 people sitting abroad had donated Rs 1.02 crore in 404 times using 55 passport numbers. 71 donors donated a total of Rs 9990870 in 256 turns using 21 mobile numbers. 75 donors donated Rs 19, 92, 123 in 148 turns through 15 credit cards. It is clear from this that the identity and nationality of the donor was hidden which is a violation of FCRA,2010.

Aadmi Party Overseas India raised funds

During investigation, ED came to know that Aam Aadmi Party Overseas India was formed by Aam Aadmi Party. Aam Aadmi Party Overseas India was run by volunteers in different countries like USA, Canada, Australia, whose job was to collect funds for Aam Aadmi Party. It was also revealed that in the year 2016, these volunteers were given a target to collect donations of Rs 50 crore.

Hide names of foreign nationals

Funding of Rs 51 lakh 15 thousand 44 was obtained by using 19 mobile numbers and email IDs of Canadian citizens. During the investigation, it was revealed that an attempt was made to hide the names and citizenship of these Canadian nationals, who were not recorded in the records. In exchange for this donation, different names were written and all this was done deliberately to hide the citizenship of the foreign national, which is a direct violation of Section 3 of FCRA 2010 and Section 298 of RPA.