Finance Minister Arun Jaitley Wednesday accused the AAP of receiving black money, and termed the party a "brilliant propagandist" who wears the "label of honesty" on its sleeves.
Jaitley said in an article on the Bharatiya Janata Party website that the Aam Aadmi Party received black money through fake companies.
"It disclosed the names of a large number of corporate entities from whom it received donations by cheques," Jaitley wrote.
"The disillusioned AAP members appear to have conducted a search of these with the Registrar of Companies. The search uncovered the curious character of the donor companies," he added.
Referring to the AAP getting Rs.2 crore through cheques, the minister said there were lots of fake companies which were converting black money into white.
AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal daring to arrest him over getting "black money" for party funds was "only a bluff and bluster exercise", Jaitley said.
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Kejriwal is not a novice to India's taxation laws. He is a former officer of the Indian Revenue Service who knows very well that such transactions are dealt with under the Income Tax Act and not the Indian Penal Code, he said.
"Why does he then dare the finance minister to arrest him? Is it only a bluff and bluster exercise," he wrote.
The minister also accused the AAP of "wearing the label of honesty on its sleeves" and said the companies they claimed to have received the money from were not making any profit.
"The companies do not do any business...They are entry lending companies. The functioning of these companies is very simple. At times there are a large number of inter-connected companies created through a multi layering process. Money is got transferred from one to another. The companies are registered at obscure addresses," the article said.
Explaining the functioning of these sort of companies further, he wrote that the directors of these companies are unknown people, usually name lenders for a miniscule consideration. These directors are usually low paid employees of those behind the racket.
"These companies are used either for hawala payments or round tripping of their own funds. They convert cash into cheque," Jaitley said adding that most of these ingredients are present in the case of the companies which are donors to the AAP.
"Surely, when a company donates lakhs and crores to a political party, the party would attempt to know as to who the controlling interest behind these companies are? The only fact that the donations have been made by cheque does not purify the transaction. Withdrawal from Swiss bank accounts can also be made by cheques. Where a political party converts black money into white, its receipt would obviously be by cheque..." the minister wrote.
He also asked Kejriwal, what he would have done if he were still a revenue service officer and a case of such money conversion through sham companies resulting in donations to a political party had landed on his table.
"What he would have done? Would he have asked the assessee to write a letter to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India or allowed him to argue that a payment by cheque to political parties forgives all sins of black money? Would he have arrested the fraudulent assessee under the Indian Penal Code rather than proceeding under the Income Tax Act," he asked.
Surely Kejriwal is not a stranger to the tax laws. He knew what his party was doing. He should be honest enough to tell the people what "Arvind Kejriwal, IRS" would have done under these circumstances, Jaitley wrote in the article.