The Enforcement Directorate (ED) informed the Union Home Ministry that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) received Rs 7.08 crore in foreign money between 2014 and 2022, reportedly violating the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), the Representation of People Act (RPA), and the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The party led by Arvind Kejriwal disputed the ED's claims, claiming that they were part of a political effort to discredit it.

7.08 crore in foreign

In its dossier, the ED informed the Union Home Ministry thatAam Aadmi Party received funding from a number of countries, including the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Oman. The dossier arrived ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in Delhi on May 25.

In its inquiry, the ED alleged multiple instances of anomalies in the collecting of foreign donations by the Aam Aadmi Party  and its leaders, accusing some of them, including Aam Aadmi Party MLA Durgesh Pathak, of syphoning off monies raised during a fund-raising event in Canada in 2016 for personal gain.

The probe agency supported the allegations with the contents of e-mails exchanged between various AAP volunteers and functionaries, including Aniket Saxena (Coordinator of AAP Overseas India), Kumar Vishwas (then Convenor of AAP Overseas India), Kapil Bhardwaj (then AAP member), and Durgesh Pathak.

Investigations have so far revealed that the amounts collected through fund-raising campaigns in the United States and Canada, as well as the identities of actual donors, were concealed in the AAP's books of accounts in order to circumvent the restrictions imposed by the FCRA on donations by foreign citizens to a political party, according to the allegations.

The investigation agency claims that several contributors made donations to AAP using identical credit card information, email addresses, passport numbers, and phone numbers.

The Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 required the ED to share all information it had gathered during its investigation with the Union Home Ministry. This information included the names, nationalities, passport numbers, amounts donated, methods of donation, recipient bank account numbers, billing names, addresses, phone numbers, and emails, as well as the time and date of the donation and the payment gateway used.

Through Canadian nationals' email addresses and cellphone numbers, the investigation team also obtained information about donations.

The Enforcement Department (ED) reports that 155 foreign nationals, using 55 passport numbers, made 404 donations totaling Rs 1.02 crore. A total of 256 times, 71 donors made donations totaling Rs 99.90 lakh using 21 cell numbers, while 148 times, 75 foreign donors made donations totaling Rs 19.92 lakh using 15 credit cards.

Donations of Rs 51.15 lakh were received via the email addresses and telephone numbers of 19 Canadian citizens, according to the Electronic Department.

But the investigation agency said that these Canadian individuals' names and nationalities were hidden and incorrectly represented in the documents.

"Instead, different names have been mentioned against these donations and this was intentionally done by AAP to hide donations by foreign nationals, which violates Section 3 of FCRA, 2010 and Section 298 of Representation of People Act 1951," it stated.

"The amount was raised by concealing, misdeclaring and manipulating the identities and nationalities of foreign donors as well as several other facts relating to foreign donations," the probe agency alleged.

An additional inquiry disclosed that the AAP established an organisation named AAP Overseas India, with volunteers from nations such as the US, Canada, and Australia, with the main objective of securing foreign funding for the party. It was also disclosed that in 2016, a goal of Rs 50 crore in international donations was set for volunteers.

An email exchange transpired between Aniket Saxena, the Coordinator of AAP Overseas India, and Kumar Vishwas, the Convenor of AAP Overseas India at the time, during a 2016 fund-raising event hosted by the AAP in Canada.

In the chat, Durgesh Pathak and Kapil Bhardwaj, who were AAP members at the time, requested that Aniket send the $29,000 in donations that were raised during a fundraising campaign to Durgesh Pathak and Kapil Bhardwaj directly through Bhagwant Toor, the ED claims.

AAP volunteers in Canada emailed handwritten raw data sheets with donor profiles and donation amounts to AAP Overseas India on November 22, 2015, following an event that was held by the party and attended by Durgesh Pathak in Toronto. The event raised 15,000 Canadian dollars.

The ED claimed that following an inquiry, it was discovered that the official documents provided by AAP did not contain the names of these genuine donors as stated in the handwritten data sheets.

Another AAP-organized event took place in Toronto on January 30, 2016, and the probe agency reported that a total of 11,786 Canadian dollars were donated, of which 3,821 were utilised to cover event-related expenses.

"An amount of 7,955 Canadian dollars was sent to AAP in their IDBI bank account using the passports of 11 AAP Canada volunteers (Indian citizens) even though the said donation was claimed to be made by more than 200 people who had attended that event," the ED alleged.

Atishi, a party leader and minister for Delhi, claimed that Arvind Kejriwal, the chief minister of Delhi, was the source of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's fear.

"This is a BJP action, not an ED one. We responded to the Election Commission, Union Home Ministry, the ED, and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) regarding this case, which has a long history," she stated.

"Modi ji is up to his old trick of discrediting the AAP. Such tactics are used by the BJP before to every election. In the next four days, there will be a lot more bogus accusations made," she said.

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