New Delhi: Senior BJP leader Subramaniam Swamy today wrote to Najeeb Jung, Delhi Lieutenant Governor as he sought prosecution for corruption charges to be sanctioned against the Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and Deputy CM Manish Sisodia.
Subramaniam Swamy has made the allegation that during his 49 days stint as the Delhi Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal and his then Finance Minister Manish Sisodia illegally favored M/s SKN Associates Limited, despite it being a VAT defaulter.
Swamy attached a list of VAT defaulters in his petition. These defaulters were served a show cause notice by the Commissioner and SKN figures in this list. The list was released just 10 days prior to Arvind Kejriwal assumed the office as Chief Minister of Delhi.
Swamy said in his petition, "From my investigation, I find that after coming to power for the first time, Kejriwal and then Finance Minister started milking these defaulters including this SKN Associates Limited. Officers disgusted with this corruption and working in the Delhi Government inform me that instead of the duo heeding their constitutional duty to collect taxes for the exchequer, Kejriwal and Sisodia started collecting money from these defaulters."
BJP later further added that this has been proven that SKN Associated Limited and its four subsidiary companies paid Aam Aadmi Party. The amount was 50 lakh each. The total amount adds up to 2 crores.
Swami said, "This is prima facie a misuse of office and misappropriation of public money and receiving quid pro quo in lieu of favour by Kejriwal and Sisodia for VAT defaulter/evader SKS Associates Limited. This comes under Sec 13(1)(d) of Prevention of Corruption Act and IPC Sections 120B, 403, 406 and 420."
Aam Admi Party has this rule where any donation more 9,99,999 rupees will not be accepted until a committee set up within the party approves of it that it is coming from a trustworthy source but it seems this was not followed in this scenario. If it was followed then how the committee could not find out that the donor companies were listed defaulters. It simply proves that these donations were never checked which puts a big question mark on the party's claims of internal transparency and democracy.
Just a few days ago Delhi government had recommended the sanction of prosecution against Swamy. It had alleged that he wrote an "inflammatory'' article in a Mumbai Daily.
Delhi Government did not give any reaction to the allegation made by Swamy. (inputs from agencies)