Money laundering probe by ED likely against AAP leader in Delhi

On April 14, CBI filed an FIR naming AAP leader Durgesh Pathak under Section 3 of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act

A week after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered a case to investigate foreign funds received by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is likely to initiate a money laundering probe into the matter, officials familiar with the development said.

AAP leader Durgesh Pathak. (Vipin Kumar/HT Photo)

The agency, an officer said, “will soon register a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to investigate the origin of funds and their ultimate beneficiaries.”

On April 14, CBI filed an FIR naming AAP leader Durgesh Pathak and “unknown private persons” under Section 3 of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), which bars political parties from accepting foreign donations, and Section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code. Last week, the CBI also raided Pathak’s premises.

The officer cited above said the CBI case, based on a reference from the Union home ministry, will form the basis of the ED probe. The ED had flagged the issue in 2022 while investigating an international drug cartel smuggling heroin from Pakistan through the Indo-Pakistan border. Since ED cannot independently register cases under PMLA, it referred its findings to the Union home ministry, which passed them on to the CBI in May 2023.

It is alleged that AAP received donations from individuals abroad in violation of foreign funding laws. According to officials, AAP received ₹1.08 crore from 155 overseas donors on 404 occasions using 55 passport numbers; ₹2.65 crore from 201 donors using 51 email IDs across 639 transactions; ₹99 lakh from 71 donors using 21 mobile numbers; and ₹19.92 lakh from 75 donors using 15 credit cards.

On Pathak’s role, officials cited email exchanges between AAP Overseas India coordinators Aniket Saxsena and Kumar Vishwas. The correspondence allegedly revealed that Pathak and Kapil Bhardwaj instructed Saxsena to transfer a $29,000 donation via a third individual, Bhagwant Toor, during a 2016 fund-raising event in Canada.

It is also alleged that Pathak attended a fund-raiser in Canada on November 22, 2015, after which a handwritten data sheet listing Canadian donors was emailed to AAP Overseas. The names were later omitted from AAP’s official records, officials claimed, accusing the party of “deliberately concealing” donor identities and manipulating its disclosures.

A CBI officer said the agency may contact overseas donors who sent money to the AAP.

In response, the AAP, in a statement, said that the BJP instead has been convicted by the Delhi high court for accepting foreign funds in violation of the FCRA. “The BJP is hell-bent on dirty politics because it cannot compete with the AAP on governance. From the very beginning, it has relentlessly targeted us. Despite filing countless cases — each one fake, just like the one they’ve filed now — not a shred of evidence has ever been found. Nothing will be found in the future either, because we are an honest, upright party. We will not be intimidated by the BJP’s false and frivolous allegations,” the statement mentioned.