Delhi L-G recommends NIA probe against Kejriwal for 'receiving funds' from banned terror outfit; AAP says conspiracy by a 'losing BJP'

New Delhi: Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena has recommended a National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on allegations that he secured donations running into $16 million from a Khalistani separatist organisation ‘Sikhs for Justice’, a charge denied by the AAP.

Saxena's communication was sent to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) last Friday, the same day the Supreme Court set Tuesday for looking into Kejriwal's interim bail plea. The communication became public a day before the apex court was to hear Kejriwal's plea.

Strongly responding to the development, senior AAP leader and Delhi Minister Saurabh Bhardwaj alleged that the L-G is an “agent of the BJP”, and it was a “big conspiracy” at the behest of the ruling party. He claimed the BJP is in “panic” due to fear of defeat in all seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi and that the conspiracy was hatched prior to the Punjab Assembly election.

The L-G's recommendation came on a complaint filed by World Hindu Federation-India General Secretary Ashoo Mongia on April 1 citing SFJ's self-styled chief Gurpatwant Singh Pannun's purported claim on video that AAP led by Kejriwal received $16 million in funding from Khalistani organisations.

Sources said the communication to the MHA citing tweets by an AAP functionary that Kejriwal had met Sikh leaders in New York in 2014 as well as held a closed-door meeting with pro-Khalistan leaders. The Chief Minister also wrote to then President Pranab Mukherjee seeking clemency for death-row prisoner Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar.

“Since the allegations have been made against the Chief Minister and related to alleged funding of a political party, amounting to millions of dollars from a terrorist organisation already banned in India, the electronic evidence adduced by the complainant requires investigation, including forensic examination,” the letter said.

“Keeping in view the sensitivity and seriousness of the allegations levelled in the complaint, the Lieutenant Governor desired that the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India may consider referring the matter to National Investigation Agency for conducting comprehensive investigation into the matter,” it said.