Delhi High Court seeks Aam Admi Party’s reply on allegations regarding foreign funding

Delhi High Court sought responses from Aam Admi Party and its founding members, including Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, on allegations regarding foreign funding.

Court was considering a writ petition pleading for registration of a criminal case on the ground that the newly formed party allegedly received foreign funding in violation of various laws.

A bench headed by Justice Pradeep Nandrajog has said that a copy of writ petition shall be supplied to Prashant Bhushan who appeared on behalf of Aam Aadmi Party. Bench directed the party to file a response four days prior to February 28, the next date of hearing.

Reports said that Mr. Bhushan, who has also been made a party in the petition besides AAP, accepted the notice and strongly opposed the earlier submissions of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) that the party and its leaders have not responded to the queries on foreign funding.

“A misleading statement was made on behalf of the government counsel on the last date of the hearing that we have not responded to the queries. Each and every query has been responded to in great detail,” he said.

Additional Solicitor General Rajeeve Mehra, appearing for MHA alleged that AAP hasn’t provided information regarding the bank details.

Besides Mr. Kejriwal and Mr. Bhushan, petitioner advocate M.L. Sharma has made AAP leaders Manish Sisodia and Shanti Bhushan as parties in his PIL.

The bench earlier asked Mr. Sharma to also implead AAP as one of the respondents in his PIL. Furhter it said the Centre should look “afresh” into the accounts of AAP to find out the source of money received by it after its inception.