Chandigarh: The Income Tax department in its report to Election Commission of India on Thursday has asked to to cancel the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) status as a political party for allegedly filing “false and fabricated” audit reports on donations amounting to Rs 27 crore, said Hindustan Times with reference to its reliable sources in the Dept.
The department’s report to the poll panel came two days before assembly elections in Punjab and Goa, where the Arvind Kejriwal led AAP is considered to be one of the front runners in the race of power. The AAP is in power in Delhi where it won the assembly elections in 2015 with clean majority.
The I-T department reportedly said that the “false and fabricated” audit reports were filed in 2013-14 and 2014-15 and hence “the registration of AAP as a trust and as a party could be revisited and cancelled.”
On the other hand the AAP dismissed the charges stating them as “yet another dirty trick by the BJP just 48 hours before voting in Punjab and Goa”.
“They are trembling with fear because people in Punjab and Goa both are overwhelmingly voting for AAP and a humiliating defeat is staring at them in the face. They have pressed the panic button in desperation. People… will teach them a lesson by overwhelmingly pressing the ‘jharu’ (AAP’s poll symbol broom) button,” Raghav Chadha, the party’s treasurer claimed while interacting with the media.
The report is stated to have details of discrepancies between the AAP’s statement to bank, what the party published on its website and filings with the Election Commission of India.
Furthermore the department alleged that Rs 20.5 crore donations to AAP out of Rs 50.6 crore shown by the party in 2013-14 and Rs 6.5 crore in 2014-15 are from dubious sources.