Foreign donations: Advani sets CBI "hawks" on Kesri

A senior Home Ministry official told The Indian Express today that the relevant Indian missions abroad have been asked for help in getting the information.

In his letter, Kaushal states that documents in respect of four companies — Decor Trading Limited, Diera Trading Limited, Dominion Trading Limited, and Berkely Business Corporation — are "urgently required for production before theDelhi High Court."

According to the letter, these documents are needed so that the court can "elicit the shareholding pattern of the persons who incorporated thecorporation, and whether they are NRIs or not."

The letter says: "Besides writing to the Congress Party and the donors, our High Commission in London and Port of Spain were also asked to help in procuring the necessary documents. While the former was also authorised to pay the requisite fee for obtaining documents, the latter has sought the help of the Government of Antigua and Barbados in the matter." He, further said that "the required documents have, however, not been received so far."

"Accordingly," the letter further states, "it has been decided with the approval of the Home Minister, to direct the CBI to procure necessary papers desired by the Delhi High Court for production of the same before it."

The issue came to light when Income Tax sleuths looking into the accounts of the Congress Party for the assessment years 1993-94 and 1994-95had detected alleged violation of FCRA with the AICC receiving foreign contributions to the tune of Rs 3.75 crore from four companies without the permission of the Central government. The High Court, which was monitoring the case, had asked the government to furnish details about the case.