Suspended AAP legislator alleges 'embezzlement' of donations

Aam Aadmi Party's suspended legislator Devinder Sehrawat on Monday accused Delhi's ruling party of "embezzling" public donations and urged Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to "clarify the fraud within 48 hours".

Sehrawat, a retired colonel, in a press conference alleged that large-scale misappropriation of money was going on in the AAP.

"Arvind Kejriwal's AAP is deeply mired in corruption, which is evident from vanishing of more than Rs 16 crore from the donations received from the common man," he alleged.

He said that such a large-scale misappropriation is not possible without the involvement of the top leadership, including the Political Affairs Committee (PAC) of the party.

"When notices were served by the Income Tax Department, AAP, a party which had advocated transparency in political funding, removed the list of donors from the party website which earlier showed realtime data," Sehrawat added, alleging that this was done to hide "embezzlement" of donations.

He urged Kejriwal to "clarify this fraud within 48 hours".

Sehrawat, who represents Bijwasan, was suspended from the AAP for anti-party activities in September.

The AAP refused to comment on Sehrawat's allegations, saying that his allegations were not worthy of any reaction.

Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Delhi unit chief Satish Upadhyay said, "Sudden deletion of AAP's donation list from its website and revelation of financial irregularities in the party shows that financial scams were going on in Kejriwal's party."

--IANS

am-vv/lok/vt