Did not receive foreign funds: AAP

The Aam Aadmi Party has informed the Centre that it has not received any foreign funding.

The Aam Aadmi Party has informed the Centre that it has not received any foreign funding.

The party has furnished a reply to a 30-point questionnaire sent to it by the Union home ministry on November 4, following complaints that it was receiving donations from foreign nationals.

Section 29B of the Representation of People Act, 1951, prohibits political parties from taking donations from state-owned companies and foreign sources.

The ministry essentially wanted to know details of bank accounts maintained for foreign contributions, donations from foreign nationals received and transferred, besides assets acquired and transferred out of such contribution.

“Most questions did not apply to our mechanism to receive donations. We have said so in our reply,” said a party source. The questionaire is part of a probe initiated by the home ministry to look into alleged foreign funds that the party had received.

While the probe is still on, the party on November 17 stopped taking donations as it claimed it had achieved the target of `20 crore to fight the Delhi Assembly elections. A total of 71,616 persons donated Rs. 20,04,98,448.54 for the party.

“We sent the reply on November 19. There is no violation of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA). We have accepted donations only from Indians and NRIs, which is permitted under laws,” said AAP’s Bipul Dey.

The party had sent millions of e-mails, requesting people to donate for it.

“We have returned several demand drafts sent as donations by foreigners. We relied on an online declaration and a digital signature to ensure there is no foreign funding,” he said.