New Delhi: The Delhi high court on Wednesday ordered a probe into allegations of illegitimate funding received from foreign sources by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), in a move that could dent the party’s clean image.

The party’s spokesperson, Sanjay Singh, however, welcomed the move. “We welcome the court’s order. Our funds should be thoroughly investigated. In fact, other political parties’ funds should also be scrutinized."

The court’s order was prompted by a public interest litigation that questioned the source of the contributions received by the party.

A division bench of justices P. Nandrajog and V.K. Rao, in its oral order directed the Union government “to look into the allegations (of receiving contribution from illegitimate sources) and call for relevant information" regarding the money received by the party from “donors abroad" and submit a report to the court.

Hinting at the political tussle that is going on in Delhi, where the party has emerged a significant contender to the ruling Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party, and also at the party’s origin, the bench said “things have heated up in the last two months" and the party having been at the forefront of anti-corruption movement, would be targeted with the same “missiles" by its opponents.

Petitioner M.L. Sharma demanded that Shanti Bhushan, Prashant Bhushan and Arvind Kejriwal, who are associated with the party, be arrested and tried by the court and that the AAP’s accounts and accounts of other societies created by these individuals be seized. The petition claims that contributions received by the party, as declared on its website, are in violation of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010.

The probe is likely to be an interesting exercise given that the party proclaims probity and says it has “entered politics to change the current corrupt and self-serving system of politics forever".

Sharma, commenting on the order, said the law is being violated as “the Act does not permit any kind of donations from foreign sources. The Act does not recognize ‘non-resident Indians’ (NRIs), as a category. The Act bars political parties from receiving funds from foreign sources. The AAP has received substantial funding from NRIs and committed an illegality".

The party claims immense popularity among NRIs. The AAP website displays the funds received from different countries. According to the information put up, an amount of ₹ 16,903,879 (nearly ₹ 1.7 crore) has been received from the US and ₹ 10,741,302 ( ₹ 1.07 crore) from Hong Kong.

The court has asked the government to submit its report by 10 December.

Anuja contributed to this story.

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