Delhi's ruling AAP, which is in a political standoff with the BJP over the arrest of Arvind Kejriwal and allegations of attack on his aide Swati Maliwal, has now received Rs 7 billion after the Canadian executive claimed it received it for defense purposes . Furious AAP leader Atishi hit back at the allegations on Monday night, saying he was "very angry with Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi" and blaming the BJP. “Organization of political attacks by federal institutions will lead to clear loss of all 20 seats in Delhi and Punjab,” he said. “After the debacle in the liquor scam and the Swati Maliwal case, the BJP has (rejected) this case...This clearly shows that the BJP has lost (but not lost) 20 seats in Delhi and Punjab. "This is not the ED's action... I know I am very angry with Modi," Atishi said.
Delhi's PWD minister said the allegations against his party stemmed from an 11-year-old incident, noting that "all responses have been submitted to the ED, Central Bureau of Investigation, Home Ministry and Election Commission." “This is a conspiracy by Mr. Modi to defame AAP,” Atishi fumed. The BJP does this before every election (many of these false claims are made in the next four days before the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi go to polls, all of which were won by the BJP). " he said. ED officials told NDTV today that receipt of foreign funds by AAP from 2014 to 2022 was a violation of the FCRA (Foreign Contribution Regulation Act). The law states that parties cannot accept foreign funds. The Agency said many of the donors had the same passport, credit card, mobile phone number and email ID. A confidential report leaked to the Home Ministry shows that 155 people living abroad donated Rs 1.02 billion on 404 occasions have donated.
The ED alleged that each donation was linked to only one of the 55 passports and that the AAP concealed the identity of the donors and transferred the funds directly to the IDBI bank account to circumvent the restrictions. Allegations of violations of this law have been uncovered. This was revealed by government officials during an investigation into a drug smuggling case involving former AAP MP-turned-Congress MP Sukhpal Singh Kheira. The ED claimed that the documents seized during the house search contained information about the donors. Some of the funds were allegedly collected by other AAP leaders for personal use. This is not the first time AAP has been accused of receiving foreign funds.
It was only in 2013, when the Congress-led UPA government was in power, that AAP started tying up foreign funding. Kejriwal said then that the Congress, now an ally under India's umbrella, was afraid of the Aam Aadmi Party and dared to investigate the foreign funds it and the BJP received. That same year, the Alliance for Democratic Reforms approached the Delhi High Court, alleging that the BJP and the Congress had received tens of millions of dollars through Indian subsidiaries of foreign companies. Two years later, the Union Home Ministry told the Supreme Court that it had found no evidence, and months later a request for a full probe was rejected on the grounds that there was no basis for interference. However, two years later, the central government again issued a notice to the Aam Aadmi Party seeking clarification on the funds received from foreign sources. The Aam Aadmi Party responded with allegations of a "witch hunt".
The Aam Aadmi Party and the BJP have clashed on a number of issues in recent weeks and months, with sentiments running high ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Arvind Kejriwal was arrested by law enforcement agencies in March in connection with an alleged liquor scam. The diabetic prime minister, who claimed he failed to administer vital insulin in prison, was released on bail until June 1. So you can campaign. Swati Maliwal's allegations that she attacked Mr Kejriwal's aide Bibhav Kumar has become a bone of contention between the Aam Aadmi Party and the BJP.
