Punjab Congress leader Sukhpal Singh Khaira, exposing the purported foreign funding scam of the Aadm Admi Party (AAP), has told News18 that the party did collect $1.19 lakh through foreign donations as part of his tour to USA and Canada in 2015-16 — all on the “directions” of party chief and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
The former AAP leader’s name features in the letter written by the Enforcement Directorate to the Union Home Ministry, seeking a probe into AAP’s foreign funding. AAP has termed this as “dirty politics” of BJP and called the allegations baseless. ED is probing the issue on basis of documents recovered from Khaira’s premises. His statement too was recorded by the agency under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
“This is a big scam,” Khaira, the three-time MLA from Bholnath and now Congress’ Sangrur candidate, told News18, breaking his silence on the issue. He was with the AAP when the controversy broke out.
“In 2015-16, I was asked by Arvind Kejriwal to visit USA and Canada. We went to 24 cities along with AAP volunteers. I was the speaker to motivate people to donate to AAP because I was impressed by the party’s ideology as it had come out of an agitation and I thought they will bring about change,” Khaira told News18 in Sangrur.
Khaira claimed that before him, AAP leader Sanjay Singh had visited USA too while Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann was sent to Australia.
“When I was in the US, in every hall, there used to be 500-1,000 people. Luckily, all these events were photographed and video-graphed. The AAP volunteers were taking the money. I don’t know if it was by cash or cards. Only AAP can tell where that money went. But I do know that $1.19 lakh were collected,” Khaira disclosed to News18.
The Congress leader said he disclosed all this to the ED when he was arrested by them and his statement was taken. “I showed them social media pages of AAP-US and those of Arvind Kejriwal which had proof of the donation exercise. Kejriwal was in the know of every penny. Everything that happens in the party is as per his direction. AAP has recently removed donation details from their portal, which raises suspicion and doubt. They must have misused the money. AAP is a corrupt party,” Khaira said.
The Congress leader said ED did not charge him for foreign donation violations in the PMLA court. Khaira was jailed under the AAP government last year and stepped out of jail on bail this January. He has accused AAP of political vendetta.
“AAP is involved in the liquor scam…their top leaders like Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain have been denied bail. It is a one-man party. Whatever happens, happens on Kejriwal’s instructions,” Khaira told News18.
An AAP leader, when contacted, said on the condition of anonymity that Khaira has an axe to grind with AAP after he was arrested by the Punjab government for illicit drug trade activity and intimidating a key witness in that case. “We have already said the donation case is an old one and we have supplied our explanation to the authorities concerned,” the leader said on the issue.
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