New Delhi, Sep 11 (UNI) Opening a possible new war front, the Election Commission on Tuesday issued notice to Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) asking why action should not be taken on the alleged donation mismatch filed by the party during the financial year 2014-15.
In the notice, the poll body said that, “its disclosures to the Election Commission in the form of the contribution report are incorrect” and added that the Commission “directs you to show cause as to why action should not be taken against Aam Aadmi Party for failure to follow its lawful directions”.
The Commission said the original report, filed by the AAP on November 30, 2015 contains a list of 2696 donors with the total donations amounting to Rs. 37,45,44,618 and the revised contribution report shows the total amount as Rs.37,60,62,631 received from 8,264 donors.
However, in its notice the Commission said the CBDT Chairman wrote to them on on January 5, 2018 regarding the concealment of donation received by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) during Financial Year 2014-15 and other discrepancies.
The CBDT report stated, “the bank account of the AAP has recorded total credits of Rs 67.67 crores, including Rs 64.44 crores from donations in excess of Rs 20,0001.
The poll body added that the party, however, disclosed a total income of Rs.54.15 crores from donations in its audited accounts for the year.
“Therefore, it has been held by the Assessing Officer that Rs.13.16 crores have not been accounted for by the party and these donations have been held to be from unknown source”
The Commission further said that, according to CBDT report the party has taken accommodation entries from hawala operators to the tune of Rs. 2 crores and these have also been wrongly disclosed as voluntary donations.
The poll body also alleged “It details how the party has changed/revised its contribution report once the correctness of the same was questioned”.
The Commission further stated that the AAP’s reply should be filed before the Commission within 20 days from the date of receipt of the notice, failing which the matter will be decided on merits based on information available on record.
According to media reports, the Income Tax department served a notice to the AAP on November last year that claimed the party had concealed income of Rs 13 crores and that it failed to reveal details of donors.
Earlier, also the Election Commission and the Aam Aadmi party face-off in various issues including the recent controversy on the dismissal of AAP MLA’s in the office of profit case.
UNI KNA SB 1800