HC asks Centre to look into accounts of AAP

Party national convener Arvind Kejriwal and some of its members are accused of receiving foreign funds in violation of law

The Delhi High Court today asked the Centre to look into "afresh" the accounts of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to find out the source of money received by it after its inception.

A bench of justices Pradeep Nandrajog and V K Rao asked the counsel for the Centre to inform it by December 10 after going through the accounts of AAP.

"You go through the accounts again after the AAP was formed. In case you find anything in violation of FCRA, take action or you inform the court about the status," the bench said.

The bench was hearing a PIL of petitioner advocate M L Sharma seeking lodging of a criminal case against AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal and some of its members for allegedly receiving foreign funds in violation of law.

The bench's order came after the Centre's standing counsel Richa Kapoor filed a report in which it has said that an evaluation of the accounts of civil society of Team Anna was done in 2012 and a report was filed before another bench of this court in January this year in a similar PIL filed by the petitioner earlier.

While taking the Centre's report on record, the bench asked the counsel to go through the details of funds given by the donors to AAP since its inception on November 26, 2012.

The court had on October 11 asked the Centre to place on record the inquiry report prepared by it earlier on a similar complaint against the civil society by October 23.

The Centre had earlier submitted before the court that the issue raised by the petitioner in his PIL has already been investigated and a report was prepared on the issues earlier by the government.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, one of the respondents in the case, had earlier contended that the petition was malafide and in the earlier report also the government had not found anything against the civil society.

Sharma, in his plea, has cited some names including that of Kejriwal and sought that "a direction be issued to register a criminal case against the respondents (AAP members) under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) and to conduct day-to-day trial proceedings within supervision of the court in the interest of justice."

The plea says the Act prohibits any fundings from foreign countries for a political party.