Midnight AAP hawala: Dr. Subramanian Swamy seeks sanction of Lt. Gov., Govt. of NCT, Delhi to prosecute CM Arvind Kejriwal and DyCM Manish Sisodia under Sec 13 (1)(d) Prevention of Corruption Act
Background
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https://www.scribd.com/doc/296925243/Appln-for-swanction-under-Sec-13-1-d-of-Prev-of-Corruption-Act-for-prosecution-of-CM-Arvind-Kejriwal-and-Dy-CM-Manish-Sisodia-Appln-Made-by-Dr-S
Background
AAP’S ‘HAWALA AT MIDNIGHT’
Tuesday, 03 February 2015 | Staff Reporter | New Delhi
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Hours after some of its former members alleged Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) of gathering donations from the fake companies, BJP launched fresh attack on the Arvind Kejriwal on Monday. While addressing a Press conference, a team of BJP leaders came down heavily on AAP and demanded a detailed investigation into the allegations. “It is election time... this is a party which is talking about other parties... later we will decide what to do... today we have worked on the work done by AVAM... what happened tomorrow is for tomorrow,” said Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. “We have heard of freedom at midnight, we can call this hawala at midnight or ghotala at midnight”, said Shazia Ilmi.
Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal who was also present at the Press conference said that the AAP’s donations are illegal. “Black money is being routed via shell companies to the party,” he said.
HYPE & DRAMA CARRY THE DAY
Tuesday, 03 February 2015 | Staff Reporter | New Delhi![]()
The slog over campaigning for the high-stake Delhi Assembly polls saw a high-pitched drama on Monday as rivals pulled no punches in attacking each other with whatever they could grab on to, and then knocked at the door of the Election Commission to ensure fair play. While AAP used a reference to Arvind Kejriwal’s “gotra” in the BJP’s “advertisement” in leading publications to attack the rival and make an emotional appeal on caste lines, the BJP hit back by levelling grave charges of accepting black money against the “so-called” anti-corruption crusaders.In the mist of all these bitter exchanges that made for minute-to-minute breaking news on TV channels, Narendra Tandon, the election in-charge of BJP’s chief ministerial candidate Kiran Bedi, first resigned from the party over Bedi’s “dictatorial” attitude and then quickly did a ‘ghar wapsi’ after meeting party chief Amit Shah. Bedi was also in the news for an attack on her Krishna Nagar election office allegedly by a group of lawyers.With opinion polls forecasting a keen contest, both major contenders for power seem desperate to win the battle of perception and influence over floating voters before the February 7 polls. Besides launching a major advertisement blitzkrieg, the BJP has roped in a huge number of MPs, MLAs and senior leaders to mobilise voters by holding roadshows, small and big rallies and establishing personal contact. The AAP has also brought hordes of volunteers from across the country and is using TV actors and social activists to send across their message of “alternative” politics.Reduced to ‘also ran’ in this election, the Congress is targeting both these front runners. Though the party can draw consolation from impressive attendance at Sonia Gandhi’s rally on Sunday and Rahul Gandhi’s roadshow last week, how much of it will translate into votes is a matter of conjecture. The day began with the AAP fuming over the BJP’s advertisement published on Monday describing Kejriwal as belonging to a “upadravi gotra.” The AAP chief accused the ruling party of creating a caste divide, playing dirty politics, and targeting the entire Agarwal community. The former Chief Minister even filed a complaint with the Election Commission, saying: “The BJP in the past few days has been giving advertisements personally attacking me.They attacked me and my children; I kept quiet because Anna used to say that if someone personally attacks you, you should have the strength to bear it. But today they have crossed their limit.” The BJP in turn said that AAP was the one violating the Model Code of Conduct by imputing meanings to the words used in an advertisement for political gains. “They are doing this so that they can benefit. The BJP treats all the castes as equal and does not believe in caste politics. The word ‘gotra’ used in the advertisement is as a metaphor, alluding to Kejriwal’s personal claim of being an anarchist,” said State BJP chief Satish Upadhyay.The BJP also approached the EC on Monday alleging that the AAP was trying to give a ‘casteist and religious’ tone to a ‘political statement’ made by it in the advertisement. As leaders of both the parties went into overdrive to tackle the sensitive issue, the BJP faced an embarrassment when Kiran Bedi’s campaign in-charge Narendra Tandon resigned from the party stating that he “could no longer bear her dictatorial attitude.” However, hours later he withdrew his resignation by apologizing to BJP president Amit Shah and saying he “got carried away by emotions.”Tandon, a former secretary of the party’ city unit and a permanent invitee to Delhi BJP’s executive committee, had sent his resignation in the morning to Shah, which was accepted. Tandon was general secretary of Delhi University Students’ Union in the late 1990s during his stint with the BJP’s ABVP. He rose through the party ranks and later became secretary of Delhi BJP when OP Kohli was made the city unit chief.After the Tandon fiasco, it was the AAP’s turn to do some intense firefighting after a break-away volunteer group of the party dropped a bombshell by accusing it of receiving Rs 2 crores last year from four “dubious” companies. The AAP strongly refuted the charges and challenged the Centre to order a probe by any Central investigation agency including the CBI, but the BJP leadership held a detailed Press conference to question the fundraising.The group, AAP Volunteer Action Manch (AVAM) claimed that the money was donated to AAP on the midnight of April 15 last year. Karan Singh and Gopal Goel of AVAM alleged that four donations worth Rs 50 lakh each were remitted to the account of AAP from four different “dubious companies”. BJP swiftly attacked AAP by calling it midnight money laundering through hawala. “We can safely call it ‘hawala at midnight’,” Shazia Ilmi said. Ilmi quit AAP and recently joined the BJP. “The party has been talking a lot about transparency in political funding. The revelations show how this party used illegal and wrong route and indulged in money laundering through hawala and pumped in money into AAP’s political funding,” Union Minister and BJP leader Piyush Goyal said.Calling the charges a conspiracy to tarnish its image, senior party leader Yogendra Yadav told a Press conference that, “We invite the Government to order an investigation before the February 7 polls itself by any of its agencies, be it CBI, ED, IB, Police, Army and subsequently arrest us if we have done anything wrong.” Late at night at a Press conference, Yadav said that they will write to the Supreme Court to set up a Special Investigation Team to probe the funding of not just AAP but also the BJP and Congress. Yadav said that the AAP has taken all its donations through cheques to ensure transparency and also insists on PAN card details for the transactions.“We’ve taken all donations by cheque.. We have a BJP Government (at the Centre). Let it investigate. Please punish me if anything wrong is found,” AAP chief Kejriwal said when asked about the allegations.Capping the day of drama was a clash between lawyers and BJP workers at the Krishna Nagar office of BJP’s chief ministerial candidate Kiran Bedi. Reports said that three persons were injured in the incident. Joint Commissioner of Police Sanjay Beniwal said the clash was between a group of BJP workers and a number of lawyers who were raising slogans against Bedi outside her campaign office. Learning of the clash Bedi who was out for campaigning tweeted: “My BJP constituency office in Krishna Nagar, am informed has been attacked. Informed some injured too. Cutting short rallies, rushing back.”
BLACK MONEY HAS BLACKENED AAP: MODI
Wednesday, 04 February 2015 | Sweta Goswami | New Delhi
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The BJP kept up its offensive against the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) over money laundering allegations with Prime Minister Narendra Modi leading the charge on Tuesday and accusing the AAP leadership of crossing all limits of “shamelessness.” Other BJP leaders, including Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, also confronted the AAP with serious questions about the source of the Rs2-crore donation that it received eight months ago from four fictitious companies.
In one of his most aggressive speeches ahead of the February 7 Assembly polls, the Prime Minister slammed the AAP over the money laundering charge, saying the AAP had crossed all limits of “shamelessness” and that this was the basic character of the outfit. Questioning AAP’s transparency claims, Modi lambasted AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal saying the very people who used to keep lists of Swiss Bank account holders now have no clue about the funds being transferred into their own accounts.
Referring to the exposé about transfer of Rs2 crore at the stroke of midnight on a single day into the AAP’s accounts, Modi called it “kaali raat mein kale dhan ke kaarnaame (misdeeds of black money at midnight).” The statement drew thunderous applause and cheers from thousands of BJP supporters gathered at the Japanese Park in Rohini. Without naming Kejriwal, he said: “The temporary party and its dramebaaz leader leveled all sorts of corruption charges against the BJP and Congress, but now the truth has come out.”
With opinion polls carried out by various channels predicting an AAP upsurge in the last leg of the polls, the BJP leadership sees the money laundering charges as a last weapon to turn the tide in its favour. The party fielded its senior leaders to raise this issue throughout the day in a bid to puncture AAP’s claim of transparency and honesty.
Launching a fierce attack on the AAP, Jaitley said the party was caught “red-handed” receiving funds through “round-tripping” from companies which did not have any business and accused it of adopting “diversionary tactics” to deflect attention. Jaitley called the Rs 2 crore donation through cheques of Rs.50 lakh each by four companies to AAP a clear case of “round-tripping of black money” and indicated that a probe will be initiated into it by the authorities concerned.
“It is obvious that this is a round-tripping of black money into the system of a political party. Now, if you are perhaps trapped in an incident of this kind, this is no position that you should start blaming other political parties and try and deflect the agenda,” he said. On AAP seeking a Supreme Court-monitored probe into funding of the three major parties in Delhi polls, Jaitley said: “These are all diversionary tactics. AAP and its leadership is caught red-handed in this case. I’m sure the statutory authorities will do their job as and when their returns are filed and as and when the facts are brought to their notice.”
Rejecting the AAP’s argument that it received the donations through cheques, Jaitley said: “The elementary question is when you give your money by cheque, who is the controlling interest behind that company, the party is supposed to know that.” He further said it was “obvious that these companies have been used as pass-through entities, transacted through hawala means or through companies which convert that money and give entries in white money to others.”
As the war of words intensified, commerce minister nirmala sitharaman even called kejriwal a thief. “a chor (thief) cannot decide who will investigate him,” she said, responding to aap’s demand for a sit probe into the funding of political parties. Sitharaman’s thief remark evoked a strong response from the aap. “not surprised if nirmala sitharaman is calling kejriwal a thief. That is the political culture they have been born into,” aap leader ashutosh said.
'Hawala at Midnight' is just the latest example of irresponsible media coverage of corruption
India is witnessing an era of fact-free accusations.!['Hawala at Midnight' is just the latest example of irresponsible media coverage of corruption]()
India is witnessing an era of fact-free accusations.
Photo Credit: Sam Panthaky/AFP
68.1KTotal Views With four days to go until the Delhi elections, the top two Twitter trends in India are #HawalaAtMidnight and #AAPFundingScam, the former a hashtag popularised by Times Now and the Times of India. The timing of the allegations – the donations in question were made 10 months ago – suggest that they are a desperate attempt to check an Aam Aadmi Party surge that has been acknowledged even by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh mouthpiece Organiser. Whether or not this attempt is successful, both print and television media have covered the so-called scam with shameful inaccuracy. The reporting on claims that AAP received large donations from dubious companies that were fronts for money laundering is only the latest example of irresponsible media coverage of political corruption.
The mere use of the words “hawala” and “money laundering” in this case borders on yellow journalism. Even the Bharatiya Janata Party – which compelled three senior ministers, Arun Jaitley, Piyush Goyal and Nirmala Sitharaman, to recuse themselves from the affairs of state in favour of attacking Arvind Kejriwal – has not accused the politician or his party of committing any illegality. Neither the BJP nor the Congress dispute Kejriwal’s assertion that the donations in question were received by cheque.
Any suggestion of illegality is restricted to the four companies that made the donations. Nirmala Sitharaman may have rhetorically referred to Keriwal as achor, but she has declined either to accuse him of a specific crime or to call for an investigation (only AAP itself has done the latter). No evidence has been offered either by AVAM, the group that made the allegations, or by the BJP to support their claims that AAP is guilty of hawala transactions or money laundering.
Grave incident
None of this is to downplay the seriousness of AAP receiving large donations of highly dubious provenance. From its inception, the party has employed a tone of relentless sanctimony, and it is not enough to say that the BJP and Congress have no credibility on the question of political funding. AAP deserves to be held to a higher standard of probity. But its failings in this case appear to be moral, not legal. It is guilty of negligence and perhaps of hypocrisy, but not – at least on all the evidence presented – of hawala or money laundering.
Contrary to the allegation made by some AAP supporters, the sensationalist media coverage does not reflect an anti-AAP bias. Network 18 aside, there is no such systematic bias in the English-language media. Indeed, AAP owes its rise more than any other party to the quantity and nature of its media coverage, testament to the media’s fixation with Delhi. It is, rather, sadly representative of the way in which allegations of corruption have been reported in recent years.
The classic case of dangerously misleading media coverage is the 2G scam. The mere fact that this was almost universally reported, especially in headlines, as the “1.76 lakh crore 2G scam” gave the impression that A Raja and the United Progressive Alliance government had pocketed that sum of money. The alleged loss was notional and the method of allocation was a policy endorsed by both the National Democratic Alliance and the UPA. But these facts were presented as the flimsy defence of criminals whose guilt was beyond question.
Serious consequences
The media’s promotion of the 1.76 lakh crore figure gave rise to the popular image of the UPA as a government not merely corrupt but uniquely corrupt. The 2G scam had a direct influence on the 2011 assembly elections in Tamil Nadu and, more indirectly, on the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. The Central Bureau of Investigation inquiry into the allocation did raise serious questions of crony capitalism. But coupled with its veneration of former Comptroller and Attorney General Vinod Rai, a man who exposed no criminality, as the voice of honesty, the media’s use of the 1.76 lakh crore figure seriously misconstrued the nature and scope of the so-called scam with far-reaching political consequences.
There are at least three factors driving inaccurate or exaggerated coverage of corruption. The first is the rise of he-said she-said journalism at the expense of reporting and, in particular, of genuine investigative journalism. In both the 2G and AAP cases, the media were guilty of uncritically reporting allegations made by groups that lacked credibility, and in particular of adopting language and figures – “hawala”, “1.76 lakh crore” – that made for good headlines but were unsupported by fact. This in keeping with a wider trend, particularly prevalent in television news, of allowing politicians to throw mud at opponents without having their accusations fact-checked or even questioned by journalists. The return from political obscurity of Subramanian Swamy – who not coincidentally is currently fighting to decriminalise libel in India – embodies this new climate of fact-free accusation.
Scams are good news
The second factor is simply that scams are good for circulation and TV ratings, not to mention Twitter trends. No political issue unites the English-language audience as much as political corruption, and if allegations of corruption are simultaneously exaggerated and reported as fact, they circulate all the quicker. As the British Prime Minister James Callaghan once ruefully remarked, “A lie can be halfway around the world before the truth has got its boots on.” Nowhere is this truer than in India.
Finally, the media reports allegations of corruption in much the same way as it reports other kinds of crime, most notably rape and murder – reserving for itself the role of both prosecution and judge, and operating under the principle of guilty until proven innocent. This is, in part, a response to the perception that the CBI is no more than a tool of the government of the day, and the failure of the courts to speedily or effectively punish corruption. The two prominent politicians jailed for corruption in recent years, Jayalithaa and Laloo Prasad Yadav, were convicted after 18 and 17 years respectively. In this climate, the public are more than happy to allow the press and television to determine matters of guilt or innocence.
We thus have a tragic situation in which the area in which the media is most capable of serving the public interest – by exposing the wrongdoings of elected representatives – is an area where journalists are actually causing sustained harm to Indian democracy. Manchester Guardian editor C.P. Scott’s dictum that “comment is free, but facts are sacred” was once the most famous expression of journalistic ethics. When it comes to the coverage of corruption, however, comment is free, but facts are boring.
68.1K
Total Views
The mere use of the words “hawala” and “money laundering” in this case borders on yellow journalism. Even the Bharatiya Janata Party – which compelled three senior ministers, Arun Jaitley, Piyush Goyal and Nirmala Sitharaman, to recuse themselves from the affairs of state in favour of attacking Arvind Kejriwal – has not accused the politician or his party of committing any illegality. Neither the BJP nor the Congress dispute Kejriwal’s assertion that the donations in question were received by cheque.
Any suggestion of illegality is restricted to the four companies that made the donations. Nirmala Sitharaman may have rhetorically referred to Keriwal as achor, but she has declined either to accuse him of a specific crime or to call for an investigation (only AAP itself has done the latter). No evidence has been offered either by AVAM, the group that made the allegations, or by the BJP to support their claims that AAP is guilty of hawala transactions or money laundering.
Grave incident
None of this is to downplay the seriousness of AAP receiving large donations of highly dubious provenance. From its inception, the party has employed a tone of relentless sanctimony, and it is not enough to say that the BJP and Congress have no credibility on the question of political funding. AAP deserves to be held to a higher standard of probity. But its failings in this case appear to be moral, not legal. It is guilty of negligence and perhaps of hypocrisy, but not – at least on all the evidence presented – of hawala or money laundering.
Contrary to the allegation made by some AAP supporters, the sensationalist media coverage does not reflect an anti-AAP bias. Network 18 aside, there is no such systematic bias in the English-language media. Indeed, AAP owes its rise more than any other party to the quantity and nature of its media coverage, testament to the media’s fixation with Delhi. It is, rather, sadly representative of the way in which allegations of corruption have been reported in recent years.
The classic case of dangerously misleading media coverage is the 2G scam. The mere fact that this was almost universally reported, especially in headlines, as the “1.76 lakh crore 2G scam” gave the impression that A Raja and the United Progressive Alliance government had pocketed that sum of money. The alleged loss was notional and the method of allocation was a policy endorsed by both the National Democratic Alliance and the UPA. But these facts were presented as the flimsy defence of criminals whose guilt was beyond question.
Serious consequences
The media’s promotion of the 1.76 lakh crore figure gave rise to the popular image of the UPA as a government not merely corrupt but uniquely corrupt. The 2G scam had a direct influence on the 2011 assembly elections in Tamil Nadu and, more indirectly, on the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. The Central Bureau of Investigation inquiry into the allocation did raise serious questions of crony capitalism. But coupled with its veneration of former Comptroller and Attorney General Vinod Rai, a man who exposed no criminality, as the voice of honesty, the media’s use of the 1.76 lakh crore figure seriously misconstrued the nature and scope of the so-called scam with far-reaching political consequences.
There are at least three factors driving inaccurate or exaggerated coverage of corruption. The first is the rise of he-said she-said journalism at the expense of reporting and, in particular, of genuine investigative journalism. In both the 2G and AAP cases, the media were guilty of uncritically reporting allegations made by groups that lacked credibility, and in particular of adopting language and figures – “hawala”, “1.76 lakh crore” – that made for good headlines but were unsupported by fact. This in keeping with a wider trend, particularly prevalent in television news, of allowing politicians to throw mud at opponents without having their accusations fact-checked or even questioned by journalists. The return from political obscurity of Subramanian Swamy – who not coincidentally is currently fighting to decriminalise libel in India – embodies this new climate of fact-free accusation.
Scams are good news
The second factor is simply that scams are good for circulation and TV ratings, not to mention Twitter trends. No political issue unites the English-language audience as much as political corruption, and if allegations of corruption are simultaneously exaggerated and reported as fact, they circulate all the quicker. As the British Prime Minister James Callaghan once ruefully remarked, “A lie can be halfway around the world before the truth has got its boots on.” Nowhere is this truer than in India.
Finally, the media reports allegations of corruption in much the same way as it reports other kinds of crime, most notably rape and murder – reserving for itself the role of both prosecution and judge, and operating under the principle of guilty until proven innocent. This is, in part, a response to the perception that the CBI is no more than a tool of the government of the day, and the failure of the courts to speedily or effectively punish corruption. The two prominent politicians jailed for corruption in recent years, Jayalithaa and Laloo Prasad Yadav, were convicted after 18 and 17 years respectively. In this climate, the public are more than happy to allow the press and television to determine matters of guilt or innocence.
We thus have a tragic situation in which the area in which the media is most capable of serving the public interest – by exposing the wrongdoings of elected representatives – is an area where journalists are actually causing sustained harm to Indian democracy. Manchester Guardian editor C.P. Scott’s dictum that “comment is free, but facts are sacred” was once the most famous expression of journalistic ethics. When it comes to the coverage of corruption, however, comment is free, but facts are boring.
Row over 'dubious' funding hits AAP, BJP smells 'hawala at midnight'
- HT Correspondent, Hindustan Times, New Delhi
| - Updated: Feb 03, 2015 01:59 IST
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- HT Correspondent, Hindustan Times, New Delhi |
- Updated: Feb 03, 2015 01:59 IST
Aam-Aadmi-Party-chief-Arvind-Kejriwal-with-party-members-in-Delhi-HT-Photo
A breakaway volunteer group of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Monday accused the Arvind Kejriwal-led party of receiving Rs 2 crore last year through four "dubious" companies, a charge strongly rejected by the rookie party that challenged the Centre to order a probe by any central investigation agency including CBI.
The group -- AAP Volunteer Action Manch (AVAM) -- claimed that the money was donated to the AAP on the midnight of April 15 last year.
Karan Singh and Gopal Goel of AVAM alleged that four donations worth Rs 50 lakh each were remitted to the account of the AAP from four different "dubious companies".
The AAP called it a conspiracy to tarnish its image ahead of the February 7 Delhi assembly elections.
"This is a conspiracy. We invite the government to order an investigation before the February 7 polls itself by any of its agencies -- be it CBI, ED, IB, police, army... and subsequently arrest us if we have done anything wrong," senior party leader Yogendra Yadav told a press conference.
Yadav said that the AAP had taken all its donations through cheques to ensure transparency and also insists on PAN card details for the transactions.
AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal said, "We've taken all donations by cheque.. We have a BJP government (at the Centre). Let it investigate. Please punish me if anything wrong is found,""The BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) 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," said a statement from the party.The BJP, meanwhile, hit out at the rookie party over the controversy."We have heard of freedom at midnight, we can call this hawala at midnight or ghotala at midnight," said Shazia Ilmi, who had recently joined the BJP after parting ways with the AAP.AAP gets Rs 15 lakh from UKAAP supporters from across the UK donated Rs 15 lakh to the party for the Delhi elections during a programme ‘Flame of Hope’ that began in Scotland and ended in London last week.Flame Of Hope is a symbolic torch that will be travelling hundreds of miles in different cities of UK along with a message board. AAP sources told HT on Monday that there was growing enthusiasm for the party during the flame journey from December 21 to January 25.
(With inputs from Prasun Sonwalkar in London and agencies)
A breakaway volunteer group of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Monday accused the Arvind Kejriwal-led party of receiving Rs 2 crore last year through four "dubious" companies, a charge strongly rejected by the rookie party that challenged the Centre to order a probe by any central investigation agency including CBI.
The group -- AAP Volunteer Action Manch (AVAM) -- claimed that the money was donated to the AAP on the midnight of April 15 last year.
Karan Singh and Gopal Goel of AVAM alleged that four donations worth Rs 50 lakh each were remitted to the account of the AAP from four different "dubious companies".
The AAP called it a conspiracy to tarnish its image ahead of the February 7 Delhi assembly elections.
"This is a conspiracy. We invite the government to order an investigation before the February 7 polls itself by any of its agencies -- be it CBI, ED, IB, police, army... and subsequently arrest us if we have done anything wrong," senior party leader Yogendra Yadav told a press conference.
Yadav said that the AAP had taken all its donations through cheques to ensure transparency and also insists on PAN card details for the transactions.
AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal said, "We've taken all donations by cheque.. We have a BJP government (at the Centre). Let it investigate. Please punish me if anything wrong is found,"
The group -- AAP Volunteer Action Manch (AVAM) -- claimed that the money was donated to the AAP on the midnight of April 15 last year.
Karan Singh and Gopal Goel of AVAM alleged that four donations worth Rs 50 lakh each were remitted to the account of the AAP from four different "dubious companies".
The AAP called it a conspiracy to tarnish its image ahead of the February 7 Delhi assembly elections.
"This is a conspiracy. We invite the government to order an investigation before the February 7 polls itself by any of its agencies -- be it CBI, ED, IB, police, army... and subsequently arrest us if we have done anything wrong," senior party leader Yogendra Yadav told a press conference.
Yadav said that the AAP had taken all its donations through cheques to ensure transparency and also insists on PAN card details for the transactions.
AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal said, "We've taken all donations by cheque.. We have a BJP government (at the Centre). Let it investigate. Please punish me if anything wrong is found,"
"The BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) 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," said a statement from the party.
The BJP, meanwhile, hit out at the rookie party over the controversy.
"We have heard of freedom at midnight, we can call this hawala at midnight or ghotala at midnight," said Shazia Ilmi, who had recently joined the BJP after parting ways with the AAP.
AAP gets Rs 15 lakh from UK
AAP supporters from across the UK donated Rs 15 lakh to the party for the Delhi elections during a programme ‘Flame of Hope’ that began in Scotland and ended in London last week.
Flame Of Hope is a symbolic torch that will be travelling hundreds of miles in different cities of UK along with a message board. AAP sources told HT on Monday that there was growing enthusiasm for the party during the flame journey from December 21 to January 25.
(With inputs from Prasun Sonwalkar in London and agencies)
(With inputs from Prasun Sonwalkar in London and agencies)
HAWALA AT MIDNIGHT: AVAM HAS A BONE TO PICK WITH AAP AS MORE SKELETONS TUMBLE OUT
Wednesday, 04 February 2015 | Rajesh Kumar | New Delhi
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More skeleton are likely to tumble out in the alleged “hawala at midnight” as some of the stakeholders are directors of multiple companies, which the Delhi Government had put in the ‘defaulters’ list of 2013’. As per document available with The Pioneer, the directors of four unknown non-operating companies — Goldmine Buildcon Private Limited, Skyline Metals & Alloy Private Limited, Infolance Software Solutions Limited, Sunvision Agencies Private Limited — who gave funds to AAP of Rs50 lakh each on the same day of April 5, 2014 midnight, are also directors of SKN Associates Limited, which has been declared a defaulter company by Department of Trade & Taxes of Delhi Government on December 18, 2013, 10 days prior to the formation of AAP Government in Delhi.
According to the document, Hem Prakash Sharma, Mukesh Kumar and Dharmendra Kumar are not only the directors of four unknown non-operating companies — Goldmine Buildcon Private Limited, Skyline Metals & Alloy Private Limited, Infolance Software Solutions Limited, Sunvision Agencies Private Limited but also of SKN Associates Limited.
Investigation revealed that SKN Associates Limited is registered with Delhi Government’s VAT Department and its address is E-71 South Extension Part I, New Delhi. The company is the supplier of electrical contracts and equipments, LPG/CNG converter, cooler tower. The company is engaged in several contracts with Delhi Government in supplying of electrical equipment like ceiling fans, gas heaters, switches, table/pedestal fans and air coolers. It is also engaged in electrical contracts with the Government.
Delhi Government had issued notices to this company on December 18, 2013 stating that registration of dealer needs to be cancelled with effect from January 1, 2014 as they have filed returns showing nil gross turnover for at least last one year, which shows they have ceased to carry out any economic activity, which would entitle them to be registered as a dealer under DVAT Act, 2004.
The allegations of financial misdemeanour against AAP by the BJP, partly hiding behind an eponymous vigilante group, unequivocally exposes the national party’s anxiety over its fate in Delhi and its own immorality when it comes to political donations. According to AAP Volunteer Action Manch (AVAM), AAP received four donations of Rs50 lakh each from bogus companies. Showcasing what they claimed were screenshots from AAP’s website, AVAM said, “All these four donations of Rs50 lakh each were received on April 5, 2014 at 12.00 am. All the four companies mentioned on the AAP website are bogus,” while questioning AAP’s funding routes. “AAP made dummy entries to evade tax,” AVAM went on to accuse. “AAP is indulging in money laundering,” AVAM alleged.
The Pioneer had carried a story of bogus dealers registered with Delhi Government’s VAT in 2014, causing huge loss to the Government exchequer.
https://www.scribd.com/doc/296925243/Appln-for-swanction-under-Sec-13-1-d-of-Prev-of-Corruption-Act-for-prosecution-of-CM-Arvind-Kejriwal-and-Dy-CM-Manish-Sisodia-Appln-Made-by-Dr-S