E-Paper
NIA should probe AAP ‘links’ with SFJ, says Delhi LG; party hits back
The AAP alluded to two previous instances before the 2022 Punjab elections when similar allegations were raised, pointing to how they had come to naught
Delhi lieutenant governor VK Saxena on Monday recommended a National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe against chief minister Arvind Kejriwal for allegedly accepting political funding from banned pro-Khalistan outfit Sikhs For Justice (SFJ) -- a move that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)alleged was at the behest of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and meant to influence the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.
The AAP alluded to two previous instances before the 2022 Punjab elections when similar allegations were raised, pointing to how they had come to naught.
The LG’s action was based on a complaint filed on April 1 this year by Ashoo Mongia, national general secretary of the World Hindu Federation – India, a non-profit right-wing group which claimed that the AAP received $16 million as funding from SFJ between 2014-2022.
In a May 3 letter to the Union home ministry, signed by the LG’s principal secretary, Saxena said that since the allegations have been made against the chief minister and “related to alleged funding of a political party, amounting to millions of dollars, from a terrorist organization already banned in India, the electronic evidences adduced by the complainant requires investigation including forensic examination”.
“Keeping in view the sensitivity and seriousness of the allegations levelled in the complaint, Hon’ble Lt. Governor has desired that the Ministry of Home Affairs, Govt. of India, may consider referring the matter to National Investigation Agency for conducting comprehensive investigation into the matter,” said the letter.
HT has seen a copy of the letter.
The complaint cited a purported video of Khalistani separatist and SFJ legal counsel Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, where he claims that Kejriwal met him in 2014 and promised to release Bhullar within five hours of coming to power.
He was convicted and sentenced to death in 2011 in the 1993 Delhi bomb blasts case. In March 2014, however, the Supreme Court commuted his death sentence to life imprisonment considering his ill-health, and a delay in the trial.
In the video, Pannun ostensibly goes on to say that “Khalistani sympathisers have given funds worth $16 million to the AAP”.
The complaint also cited a series of posts on X made regarding an allegedly “clandestine meeting” between Kejriwal and pro-Khalistan sikhs in New York in 2014.
Delhi minister and AAP legislator Saurabh Bharadwaj accused the BJP of trying to conjure a political conspiracy.
“LG is continuously adopting cheap tactics to tarnish chief minister Kejriwal’s image at the BJP’s behest. And this is taking place just before the voting for all seven Lok Sabha seats of Delhi on May 25,” Bharadwaj added
There were previous instances two years ago when the AAP’s purported links with the SFJ were sought to be investigated.
In the first, then Punjab chief minister, the Congress’s Charanjit Singh Channi wrote to Union home minister Amit Shah in February 2022, alleging that the “banned organisation is in constant touch with the AAP”.
“This is a serious issue of compromising the security and integrity of the country and thus needs to be investigated,” Channi said. Shah responded saying he would “personally look into” the allegations. However, the matter has not moved perceptibly in more than two years since then.
In the second, the Delhi high court in March that year struck down a plea that sought a “high-level inquiry” into the alleged SFJ-AAP ties, calling the petition frivolous. The plea cited Channi’s letter to Shah.
“The relevant authorities are cognisant. Where is the question of Court directing an inquiry” asked the Delhi high court bench of acting chief justice Vipin Sanghi and justice Navin Chawla.
Bharadwaj also referred to the two instances.
“BJP made exactly the same allegations before the Punjab assembly elections in 2022. At that time, Union home minister Amit Shah ordered an investigation too but nothing was found,” he said.
In a post on X, Bharadwaj said: “The PIL demanding a high-level investigation in the same matter was dismissed by Delhi high court two years back. The Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Navin Chawla had rejected the plea filed by one Jagdish Sharma, stating that it is “completely frivolous”.”
To be sure, NIA takes up cases only after the home ministry issues a notification to that effect. It cannot directly take up a probe that is referred to it by an LG, governor or a state government.
Even in cases where it has information about a purported threat to the sovereignty and unity of the country by a group or individual and wants to take up a probe of its own accord, the agency must first write to the home ministry, which then examines if the matter calls for an NIA probe. The agency has so far registered 556 cases related to terrorism activity or funding.
NIA officials, who asked not to be named, on Monday said they do not have information about a reference made by the Delhi LG regarding a complaint against Kejriwal or the SFJ’s funding the AAP.
Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva welcomed the LG’s recommendation.
“Kejriwal has always had a soft corner was separatist causes. His support for people like (jailed separatist leader) Yasin Mallik is well known,” Sachdeva said.
