Centre seeks details from AAP on foreign funding

The central government Tuesday informed the Delhi High Court that it has sought detailed information from the AAP over allegations of receiving foreign funds, saying this was in violation of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA).

Filing an affidavit before a bench of Acting Chief Justice B.D. Ahmed and Justice Siddharth Mridul, the centre said the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has only given details of account numbers and not the source of the funds.

The affidavit filed through advocate Sumeet Pushkarna said that while the AAP claims to have received Rs.30 crore from Indians living abroad, the actual details of the contributors were missing in the response filed by the party to the central government.

It said the AAP also did not provide details on the transactions in the bank accounts and how it utilised that amount.

A fresh notice has been sent to AAP by the central government seeking details on the transactions and utilisation of foreign funds received by it.

On March 12, the bench had sought response from the central government on a public interest litigation that alleged the AAP received foreign funds.

The AAP had earlier told the court that it was the only party whose financial records and other details were open for public view and got donations of Rs.30 crore from Indian citizens only, out of which Rs.8.5 crore came from NRIs.

Earlier, the court had directed the central government to go through details of the money donated to the AAP since its inception Nov 26, 2012 and to take action if anything was found in violation of the FCRA

The plea named former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, advocates Shanti Bhushan and Prashant Bhushan and party member Manish Sisodia.

It said the AAP and its members were promoted and funded by the Central Intelligence Agency(CIA) of the US through various companies and trusts such as Ford Foundation.

The court will hear the matter May 7.