Below is an email by one Rajeev Bajwa to Arvind Kejriwal and Pankaj Gupta (dated March 30, 2015) complaining of irregularities in donated funds. Aam Aadmi Party should act on this person’s request and take appropriate action. This email has been leaked by a dissenting volunteer of AAP.
Hello Arvind ji & Pankaj ji,
My name is Rajeev Bajwa and I am AAP supporter from day one and one of the leading Donors from New Zealand and also one of three POC’s of New Zealand.
I am writing in regards to the CASH DONATIONS (Rs. 49000.00) deposited on dated 06/05/2014 into the personal account of Ms. Preety Mehra’s ICICI Noida Branch (Receipt attached)
BACKGROUND / OVERVIEW :
During Lok Sabha (PUNJAB) Elections May 2014 – S. Kaharg Sing Sidhu ji’s took initiative and made an efforts to do a fund raiser night for AAP and we raised 10 lac of Donations on that night.
Out of these collected Donations;
8 Lac out of 10 lacs raised by sidhu ji was transferred via Girish Mailar’s Indian passport – this caused us some trouble – We received many complaints from other volunteers that Girish has accepted all thanks and credits on his individual name and projected him self as he has donated this from his own pocket where as donations were collected in a fund raiser dinner – Resultant marked “?” on Girish’s integrity amongst all other volunteers in NZ.
2 Lacs were transferred via my own Indian Passport – I declared every single rupee of that on social media giving all the due credit to all volunteers & donors especially Sidhu ji.
Couple of days before Varanasi elections Girish contacted me and asked to arrange an urgent funds transfer of Rs.100,000.00 into Preety Mehra’s PERSONAL account held at ICICI Noida Branch.
When I asked reason that why we can not donate directly into AAP official account then Girish insisted me not to transfer into official AAP account because volunteers are not getting any funds in Varanasi and they are desperate for financial support and Girish assured & confirmed that it is coming from reliable source which includes Shalini Gupta, Prayas Chaudhary, Vijay Sirohi.
Girish further assured me & Sidhu ji that a proper official AAP donation receipt will be provided.
I discussed this matter with S. Kharag Singh Sidhu (2nd AAP POC of NZ in Auckland)
Considering the critical situation and as explained by Girish that the request is coming from reliable AAP volunteers we decided to go ahead however I decided to ring Pankaj Gupta ji for clarification on this.
I called Pankaj Gupta ji’s personal mobile – Pankaj ji was very busy and asked me to call one his assistant.
I spoke to Pankaj ji’s assistant and I was told that it is NOT allowed to donate in ANY of the volunteers personal accounts and I was asked to provide names of those volunteers if someone is asking to transfer funds into their personal accounts.
I further raised this feedback with Girish & Sidhu ji that it is NOT officially recommended and is a BIG NO NO.
Girish then contacted these volunteers and provided their phone numbers in India, I spoke to Anurag, he said he is in Varanasi with Varun Gupta and they are 20 -30 people and they ran out of funds and do not have any support from AAP at that stage and they desperately need cash to arrange food for volunteers.
He also promised to send us photos of current location and scenario once they get a chance.
After considering all this and thinking we need to take risk, we (Sidhu ji, Myself) agreed to Girish’s request to send them money. Girish further insisted that they need money immediately so I had to call my Father in India (Hoshiarpur) to deposit Rs. 100,000.00 into the personal account of Preety Mehra (wife of Varun Gupta – Seattle USA) held at ICICI Noida branch.
My father was very busy so he had to send one of his employee (Manjit Singh) to deposit cash in Preety’s a/c –
To ensure that money has been received by correct person, I tried to contact Anurag & Varun repeatedly on their mobiles but they did not pick up my phone at all. Luckily it was only first installment of Rs.49000.00 out of one lac was deposited. As you can not deposit more that Rs49000.00 cash in one particular day otherwise banks ask for further details of income etc, etc..
Later after raising this matter further with Girish, I was given an online meeting details on fuse so that I can clarify if I want to clarify this matter further but I never received any official donation receipt or any photos from Varanasi as promised by Varun Gupta & Anurag over the phone.
After two days of chase I received a wahts up message that Rs. 49000.00 were received into Preety’s account.
Till date Varun Gupta failed to make ANY effort to clarify this unaccounted donation received by him rather it seems to me that he is avoiding this matter including me personally on all fronts i.e. social media etc.
I may be wrong and my observations may be wrong – I am not trying to judge any ONE person here. All I want to REQUEST you is that please chase this tail so that we can find out if there are any MORE similar anomalies in FUNDS transferred to personal accounts.
Regards,
Rajeev Bajwa
[Note: This email describes a donation clearly made against the advice of AAP leaders. It is also written after the current crisis in AAP emerged and as such, I see this more as a complaint of misdeeds by rogue volunteers/workers than an allegation on the party itself.]
Anand Sharma
Apr 3
I personally gave about 5K via Somu to a “fellowship” program, that he runs .. hoping that Arvind Kejriwal will not betray us ! This was more like a salary given to Arvind Kejriwal (underhanded, unofficially!!) for his day-to-day livelihood ..
That 5000$ included a IPAD for Dilip Pandey too
I know Somu had collected ovr the years, thousands of dollars, from various NRIs for this fellowship program, that basically funded Arvind & other activists livelihood (some of those so-called activists are noware now enjoying the comforts of the new AAP )
But who cares about it anyway .. I got fooled and wanted to say it out today it today , so that I can take this off my chest !
I do not have proofs. So don’t bother me asking me all that ..
All that I have is the copy of the check given to Somu (which was honestly delivered to Arvind so that he can lead a comfortable life) !
Regards
Anand
P.S I am not replying/reacting to any reply emails here ! So don’t waste ur energy coming after me!
– show quoted text –
Mark as complete
There is also provision to transfer fund directly into candidate’s bank account (EC account ) , are you referring to that account ?
The individuals in question don’t appear to be candidates.
Vidyut,
Not sure why this question is being raised now, however the things said above are wrong at few counts 1) Preety Mehra is not Wife of Varun as stated in that mail. 2) Based on my discussion with Vijay Sirohi, he don’t even know who is this Girish guy is 3) Varun has responded to this email stating the facts. 4) As per Varun account the person never talked to him in relation to this particular subject. Please incorporate that as well here. The money was being raised to support for outstation volunteers for their Lodging and food. As there were many outstation volunteers at that time in Varanasi. The reason why it is being asked to be deposited in personal account instead of AAP account, was to save time and provide cash required for the cash strapped volunteers. Yes the process was not followed in this case, but they do have valid reasons. I am really not sure about the timing of this email now coz this has happened during LS election last year. The person who sent the mail now, was he under dope till now? The insinuation or the overall result which one might draw that the funds has been taken off for personal gains. In my view it is really stupid to think that a person who spent lacs of rupees to fly down to India from here, spent 2 months on ground to support the campaign, motivate many NRI members to take care of many projects be it back office operations or calling campaign will do this to gain 1 Lac. Again saying yes the process has been ignored here but not for the personal gains rather to respond quickly for the volunteer requirement. So my request to Mr Bajwa, please don’t shoot out the mails NOW which will further confuse people and put doubts in the mind.
@Shashank Bharadwaj
I take a strong exception to your exception as I find it very hollow.
1) “Not sure why this question is being raised now, however the things said…”
– If there is a wrong done a couple of years before, it should not be brought to light? You mean to say that coal allocation scam should not have been filed by Bhushan because it was long ago? Are you even making sense or just being angry because truth has come to light? Think about it.
2) “…things said above are wrong at few counts”
– Then where is the enquiry? Where is the report by lokpal? Was there even an enquiry? Where is the acknowledgement to the person filing the complaint that an enquiry has even been initiated? Is there even a single process being followed or there is no redressal at all? Because when AAP wanted my funds it promised me an independent lokpal and told me that all enquiries are being sent to him. If there is no redressal mechanism, Phony Kejriwal looted my money and PB and YY kept silent about it? Whole of the leadership of AAP is corrupt and liars. SAB KE SAB CHOR HAIN JI.
3) “The reason why it is being asked to be deposited in personal account instead of AAP account, was to save time and provide cash required for the cash strapped volunteers. Yes the process was not followed in this case,…”
– I applaud the high level of your IQ to completely miss the point, or perhaps you are just trying to suppress the logical voice within yourself? Its not about where the money went , its about trail. Was there even a trail left of where the money went? Or account of where it was spent? Is there even a single proof : or at least a back dated non-forged real acknowledgement that money was used that way? And not following the process is one thing but making the entire trail disappear without any acknowledgement is the work of corruption. I mean we all know what the burnt files in UPA’s real estate scams contained, infact Kejriwal told us. Maybe you were not listening to him at that time as he was not using expletives like kaminey and GPL…
4) “…my request to Mr Bajwa, please don’t shoot out the mails NOW which will further confuse people and put doubts in the mind…”
Wow!!! What a way to uphold transparency to fight corruption. I salute you.
What is the purpose of this article ??
If anyone has any material against AAP, they should contact you & you will publish it immediately is it ??
Did you contact Rajeev Bajwa before leaking his personal mail ?? Is this not defaming him ??
Did you ask him regarding any follow up or what steps were taken after this ??
Did you contact AAP regarding what any verification/ action they took ??
Did you contact Varun/ Preethy / Girish for their side ??
You have dragged all their names but the dissenting volunteer is anonymous ?? Very nice.
Pathetic hate mongering.
WHY AREN’T YOU PUBLISHING MY COMMENT ??
Comments here are not published instantly. They are in a moderation queue, and I approve them at intervals. CAPS LOCK WON’T CHANGE THIS SCHEDULE 😉
AK says at anti-corruption Helpline launch: – If Manish does corruption- I will send him to jail and Manish- if I do corruption you send me to jail..!! –
RIP Lokpal!!
Now we might as well play – sting- sting- Fittus!!