AAP mystery deepens, director of shell firms denies donating Rs 2 crore to AAP

Most of the directors and shareholders of the four companies – Goldmine Buildcon Pvt Ltd, Sunvision Agencies Pvt Ltd, Skyline Metals and Alloys Pvt Ltd, Infolance Software Solutions Ltd – which donated Rs 2 crore cumulatively to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) do not exist on the addresses which they have furnished before the Ministry of Corporate affairs (MCA).

However, dna could track one director named Mukesh Kumar (the name registered as a director of these companies with Ministry of Corporate affairs), whose real name is Mukesh Sharma. In an exclusive to dna, he revealed: "I own these companies, but I haven't given any cheques to Aam Aadmi Party."

dna had on Tuesday reported that four shell companies had pumped Rs 2 crore into Kejriwal's campaign barely days before Arvind Kejriwal filed his nomination from Varanasi Lok Sabha seat to take on Narendra Modi.

"This could be a mischief done by somebody in my name as I have never issued any cheques to the AAP. I am in Rajasthan now and once I come back I will report the matter to the police," Mukesh told dna over phone.

This brings about a twist in the tale as the registered addresses of the four companies are fake, most of the directors and shareholders are fake and the lone director who admits of having a stake in these companies (he is the director of three companies and share-holder in the fourth one) says that he has never given money to the AAP.

Thus, it is not clear as to who made the payments and on whose behalf. Is it the AAP which has done this alleged money laundering or was it done on the behest of someone else.

Earlier, training guns against the Aam Aadmi Party for bogus funding, the AAP Volunteer Action Manch (AVAM) claimed that the cheque payments received by the party are fraudulent. One of the cheques was in the name of Mukesh which he denies of signing.

While in most of the companies Hem Prakash Sharma, Mukesh Kumar, Ajay Kumar, Upadhaya and Yogesh Kumar are shareholders and directors, some shell companies like Shivam Buildmart Pvt Ltd, Suvidha Buildtech Pvt Ltd, First Choice Probild Pvt Ltd were also named shareholders in the above four companies.

ED awaits FM nod

Donation of Rs 2 crore to the AAP in April 2014 barely days before Arvind Kejriwal filed his nomination from Varanasi to take on Narendra Modi has put his party in a fix. The donation seems to have been made by ghost entities. The anomaly has even perplexed the ED which is awaiting directions from the Finance Ministry to launch an official probe.

According to Indian banking norms, it is compulsory for banks to do physical verification of the client.
Since addresses given by these companies are fake, the question comes whether Axis bank has verified the existance of these companies

When dna visited D-114-115 in Ganga Vihar of Gokupuri, both the plot number were registered in name of 'Shri Guru Jai Swargiya Tulsi Ram Ashram' and there was a Radhe Shyam temple. On enquiry, the pujari said, "I'm working in this temple since 2010 and it has been almost four years."

On question if he knows any Mukesh Kumar, he said, "I know Mukesh Sharma but not Kumar. He lives in the adjoining house."

Knock on the adjoining house D-113, a lady comes out and says we are tenants here and refused to talk. When dna went back to the temple to confirm Mukesh's existence, before we could talk to the pujari, a lady came and asked "Yes, what do you want?"

She explained that her name is Shashi Sharma and she lost her husband nine years ago. "I build up this temple and opened an ashram called Shri Guru Tulsiram Ashram in his memory. Both are looked after by my husband's younger brother Mukesh Sharma. But he has gone to Rajasthan to meet his daughter. He'll be back in 2-3 days and you can speak to him then."

During a look at temple, dna team got access to a poster also which had printed details about Mukesh Sharma, citing him as chairman of Paras Welfare society, along with his mobile numbers.

However, visit to other two addresses in Ganga Vihar, revealed that the persons in that address didn't exist. On visit to D-276, where director Hem Prakash Sharma lives, the two-storey house was found to be resided by a lady in her 60s and a woman named Deepika Sharma, who was living with her family. Deepika says, "Neither my husband nor anyone in my family knows Hem Prakash Sharma."

The third director Yogesh Kumar also doesn't exist. The addres D-51A is resided by four different families as the chunk of land is split into four houses. One part is occupied by Delhi Jal Board employee Sukhpal, while adjacent house to Sukhpal's is occupied by a carpenter Gopisham Sharma. The third house is rented out to Vandana Sharma and her family. On tracking the house owner, D-51 is a big plot owned by a woman, Pancham Devi.

"The plot was a 50 gajj land and the plot was bought by a few people together. I don't know the rest but I just own a small area," she said, surprised and terrified to know that her address was being used. Interestingly, the area also has a bunch of Delhi police personnel living in the same street number 4.

Ajay Kumar Upadhyay, who claimed to be residing in Veer Savarkar Block of Shahkarpur, never rented out that one-room shop. The caretaker of the building Shivkumar after requested by dna inspected his records and said no such man ever rented the place. "Right now Ramesh is renting this room and before them it was a man who owned a travel agency." The building addressed Plot Number 21 is full of private money lenders.

After tracking the directors, dna went into further details and tried to track some of the shareholding companies like Shivam Buildmart Pvt Ltd, which claims to work from Ansari Road in Darya Ganj, according to Ministry of Corporate Affairs databank. However, it also didn't exist, raising a lot of questions. Radhe Sham, who is a helper-cum-driver, with a company in the same building as Shivam, says, "It's not first time. People from Income Tax, banks and a lot of other organisations often come inquiring about so many companies. There is nothing black and white here."

Even the other shareholding companies like Suvidha Buildtech Pvt Ltd, First Choice Probild Pvt Ltd do not exist on the registered addresses.

ED may not find it easy

There seems to be a web of 69 companies through which the final payment was made. One of the companies that made the final payment of Rs 50 lakh, Sunvision Agencies Pvt Ltd, never had any staff on its payrolls, never paid any salaries nor generated any revenue that could justify the payment. In fact, barely a year before the payment, the company did not not even have a bank balance and had a cash in hand of roughly Rs 80,000. Other companies that made donations also share similar tales -- no record of any revenue generating activity or for that matter even directors who claim they exist.

Did Ministry overlook these individuals ?

All the four -- Mukesh Kumar, Hem Parkash Sharma, Yogesh Kumar and Dharmendra Kumar -- who are the directors and shareholders of the four companies, are also directors of 62, 56, 26 and 33 companies, respectively. According to Section 165 in the Companies Act, 2013 a person can act as director in a maximum of 20 companies at any given point of time out of which not more than 10 should be public companies. Thus, the role of Ministry of corporate affairs under the current BJP government is also questionable.

Did bank comply with KYC norms ?

AAP got two donation of Rs 50 lakh each from Goldmine Buildcon Private Limited and Skyline Metal and Alloys Private Limited. Interestingly, both the cheques are issued from the same bank but different branches. While Goldmine Buildcon Pvt Ltd has its account with Vishwas Nagar branch, Skyline Metal and Alloys Pvt Ltd's account is with Safdarjung Enclave branch. It is compulsory for banks to do physical verification of the client either through sending a person or by sending a verficiation mail on the registered address which a person comes and deposits to ensure existence and verificiation of his address. Since addresses given by the companies are fake, the question comes whether Axis bank verified the existance of these companies.