AAP accused of getting funds from bogus companies

New Delhi, February 2: A breakaway group of the AAP on Monday accused the party of receiving dotions 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 Jata 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, on Monday said there were four dotions each of Rs 50 lakh by four bogus companies to the AAP.

He claimed that the funds were received on April 5 at midnight and the companies that made the dotions 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 doted 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 dotions were in public domain and fully transparent. It said every rupee doted 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, doted Rs 50 lakh each to the AAP on the same day,” BJP leader and union Power Minister Piyush Goyal said.

Citing the dotion rules, Goyal said a company can dote only 7.5 percent of its average annual profit plus tax for three years as political dotion. IANS

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