Petition on funding frivolous but ready for probe: AAP

Aam Aadmi Party today dismissed as "utterly frivolous and malafide" a petition requesting probe into the donations received by it from foreign sources but said it was ready for any probe into the issue.
At the same time, Arvind Kejriwal-led party questioned why the Government was "dragging its feet" on a similar petition filed by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), with "documentary proof", against Congress and the BJP.
Yesterday, the Delhi High Court had asked the Centre to look "afresh" into the accounts of 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 of Foreign Currency Regulation Act (FCRA), take action or you inform the court about the status," the bench said.
In a statement, AAP spokesperson said, "This order has been made in an utterly frivolous and malafide petition filed by M L Sharma, who has not made AAP a respondent but has made Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, Prashant Bhushan and Shanti Bhushan as respondents."

The party strongly rebutted "ridiculous allegations" made against Team Anna and an NGO Kabir, with which Manish Sisodia was associated, in the petition.

"It doesn't disclose the result of an earlier petition filed by Sharma against foreign funding of Kabir. The government after full investigation had found everything to be in order," he said, adding it was noteworthy that though the High Court has not yet issued notice in this petition it has still asked the Government to enquire into this issue.
The party said that petition filed by ADR has been pending for almost a year in the Delhi High Court which has complete documentary evidence on the funding of the Congress and the BJP.
"The Government has been dragging its feet in that case and taken no action despite documentary evidence," the party said.

AAP stressed that it was committed to "complete transparency" and had put up all its donations received on its website and scrupulously ensured that its donation were only from Indian citizens and some from Indian companies.
According to AAP website, it has received a total of Rs 16.65 crores from Indian donors abroad and within the country.
It has received around Rs 11.82 crore from donors within the country, while Rs 1.70 crores from Indians in the US, Rs 1.07 crore from Indians in Hong Kong, Rs 48.40 lakh from donors in the UAE, Rs 34.29 lakh from United Kingdom and Rs 33.17 lakh from Singapore.