Two days after Kiran Bedi was exposed for flying on discounted air tickets but taking full fare from sponsors, another prominent Team Anna member, Arvind Kejriwal, now faces charges of diverting huge funds from anti-graft front India Against Corruption (IAC) to his own NGO.
Swami Agnivesh, who controversially quit Team Anna recently, has alleged that Kejriwal deposited between Rs 70 lakh and Rs 80 lakh from donations to IAC to his trust, Public Cause Research Foundation.Kejriwal did not respond to queries from Hindustan Times, but sources in Team Anna called the allegations baseless. They said audited accounts of donations to IAC will be made available wiithin the next two days.
"The money was collected during Anna Hazare’s fast at Jantar Mantar and later, at Ramlila ground. But this money was not deposited in IAC as it didn’t have any bank account," Swami Agnivesh said on Saturday.
Agnivesh’s close aide, Manu Singh claimed, “In the last meeting of the IAC’s core committee at Ralegan Siddhi, Anna was quite upset over the issue and asked for proper maintenance of accounts. Kejriwal had promised to deposit the money with IAC in a few days. But it never happened.”
When asked why Swami Agnivesh is raking up the issue now, Singh said, “He had been saying this for quite some time. The media only started noticing it now.”
Asked how he calculated the figure, Agnivesh said that at Ramlila Maidan the public was stopped from donating money since Rs 50 lakh had already been collected. “They also received donations during Anna’s fast at Jantar Mantar in April.”
When asked why Swami Agnivesh is raking up the issue now, Singh said, “He had been saying this for quite some time. The media only started noticing it now.”
Asked how he calculated the figure, Agnivesh said that at Ramlila Maidan the public was stopped from donating money since Rs 50 lakh had already been collected. “They also received donations during Anna’s fast at Jantar Mantar in April.”