After Delhi L-G’s letter, NIA begins probe into AAP ‘funding’ by Khalistani groups
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, May 21
Days after Delhi L-G Vinai Kumar Saxena recommended a National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe into the allegations that Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party received political funding from pro-Khalistan outfit Sikhs for Justice, a banned terror organisation in India, the central agency is learnt to have commenced its probe.
Top sources said the NIA probe had begun on a communication the Principal Secretary to the L-G sent to the Union Home Secretary on May 5. Parallel to this, an October 2022 note of the ED to the MHA has come to light wherein the agency suggested action against AAP for “receiving foreign funds” in violation of Indian laws that prohibit foreign funding of political parties. The ED mentioned that same passports, credit cards, emails and phone numbers were used for multiple foreign donations to AAP. For its part, AAP had rejected the charges saying “PM Narendra Modi was raising old issues in the face of a defeat in the parliamentary elections”.
The developments come four days ahead of the Lok Sabha poll in Delhi and Haryana and 11 days ahead of the elections in Chandigarh and Punjab, with AAP’s stakes high in all regions, especially Delhi and Punjab where it is in power.
The L-G’s letter to the MHA was based on a complaint by Ashoo Mongia, national general secretary, World Hindu Federation India, that AAP allegedly received USD 16 million from extremist Khalistani groups for “aiding the release of 1993 Delhi bomb blast convict Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar and espousing pro-Khalistani sentiments”.
Saxena recommended that since the complaint was against a sitting Chief Minister and involved political funding by a banned organisation, electronic evidence adduced by the complainant needed probe and forensic examination. The L-G on May 5 also referred to the Home Ministry a January 2014 letter by Kejriwal to one Iqbal Singh, mentioning that the “AAP government had already recommended to the President the release of Bhullar and would be working on other issues, including the formation of an SIT, etc sympathetically and in a time-bound manner”. Iqbal, then fasting at Jantar Mantar for Bhullar’s release, ended his agitation.
Mongia’s complaint cited a purported video by Khalistani terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun where he alleges that AAP received USD 16 million from Khalistani groups between 2014 and 2022. “It has also been alleged that Kejriwal held closed-door meetings with Khalistani leaders at Gurdwara Richmond Hills, New York, in 2014 wherein Kejriwal promised to facilitate the release of Bhullar in return for substantial financial backing from Khalistani factions to AAP,” the L-G’s communication to the MHA said.
$16 mn for release of terror convict?
The L-G’s letter to the MHA was based on a complaint that AAP allegedly received $16 million from extremist Khalistani groups for “aiding the release of 1993 Delhi bomb blast convict Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar and espousing pro-Khalistani sentiments”
