Headlines
AAP accused of getting funds from bogus companies
New Delhi, Feb 2 A breakaway group of the AAP Monday accused the party of receiving
donations worth Rs.2 crore from bogus companies. The BJP questioned the
funding but the AAP rejected the allegation as "malicious and false
propaganda" unleashed by "mysterious fronts" created by the BJP.
With
assembly polls in Delhi less than a week away, the Aam Aadmi Party also
challenged the Bharatiya Janata Party-led central government to probe
the source of funding which, it said, has already been investigated
twice earlier.
Gopal Goyal, a member of the AAP Volunteer Action
Manch (AVAM) breakaway group, Monday said there were four donations each
of Rs.50 lakh by four bogus companies to the AAP.
He claimed that the funds were received April 5 at midnight and the companies that made the donations were bogus.
The AVAM was formed by then AAP members in 2014 over the demand of decentralisation of power in the party.
Addressing
a press conference here, Goyal said none of the donor companies had
earned even a single rupee, but donated such a huge amount.
"Where do they get their money from," asked Goyal, saying he was ready to face punishment if his charges were found to be false.
The
AAP said in a statement that it was the only political party in India
whose entire donations were in public domain and fully transparent. It
said every rupee donated to the party was declared on its website for
public scrutiny.
"It has been wrongly alleged that the AAP has accepted funds from dubious sources on 5 April 2014," the statement said.
Describing the BJP as "frustrated and desperate", the AAP said it was spreading lies.
"The
BJP and some mysterious fronts created by it close to the Delhi
assembly elections have unleashed a malicious and false propaganda on
the funding of the AAP," the statement said.
"Since Monday
morning, a defamatory smear campaign is being run against the AAP to
confuse the people and divert attention from important issues concerning
the people of Delhi," the AAP statement added.
It also said the
party funding has already been probed twice by successive central
governments -- the Congress-led UPA and now the BJP-led NDA government.
"The
party also challenges the government to probe its funding from any of
the agencies at its command as many times as it wants," the statement
added.
The BJP, meanwhile, said the AAP had no right to question the funding of other parties until it revealed its own.
"Four
fake companies, with same directors, and made within a period of 10-11
days, donated Rs.50 lakh each to the AAP on the same day," BJP leader
and union Power Minister Piyush Goyal said.
Citing the donation
rules, Goyal said a company can donate only 7.5 percent of its average
annual profit plus tax for three years as political donation.
Another
BJP leader, Nirmala Sitharaman, who is also the union commerce and
industry minister, said: "AAP ... till you give specific answers, stop
telling other political parties what high ground you are seated on."