Suspended Aam Aadmi Party leader Kapil Mishra on Sunday accused Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and the party’s top leaders of committing financial illegalities. Mishra accused the Kejriwal-led administration in Delhi of indulging in “massive corruption”. The former Delhi water minister, who has been on a hunger strike for four days, appeared to lose consciousness after briefly addressing reporters.
During the press conference, Mishra demanded that Kejriwal resign by Sunday evening and threatened to drag the chief minister to jail. He said he would submit the evidence he had collected to the Central Bureau of Investigation.
The ousted leader further claimed party accounts revealed that crores of rupees had been swindled. “See for yourself the difference between what they have and what they claim to have, and what they declare to the Election Commission,” Mishra said. “The Income Tax [Department] has sent a notice to Arvind Kejriwal with regard to four companies he holds fraudulently.”
His latest allegations come a day after he had claimed that the police were trying to “forcibly” take him to a hospital based on “fake reports” given by doctors. On Sunday, he also alleged that the AAP chief illegally ran hundreds of companies that have “crores of rupees in each of these company accounts”.
On Wednesday, the police had said that an AAP member had assaulted Mishra during his hunger strike at his home in New Delhi’s Civil Lines locality. Mishra has been protesting against the alleged misuse of public money by the Delhi government. He had accused the Kejriwal regime of using public money on foreign trips for party leaders Sanjay Singh, Ashish Khetan, Satyendar Jain, Raghav Chadha, and Durgesh Pathak.
While stressing that his protest was part of Kejriwal’s policy on “standing up for the truth”, Mishra had described his demonstration as a “peaceful agitation” until Kejriwal makes the details demanded public. The government had given Mishra 60 days to vacate the official bungalow allotted to him as a minister.
AAP denies charges
The AAP has rejected all of Mishra’s allegations and claimed the Bharatiya Janata Party is behind the claims. Senior leader Sanjay Singh said that Mishra was simply “parroting” the BJP’s allegations and called it a “ploy” against the AAP.
The BJP, however, said it has no part to play in the ongoing AAP fiasco. BJP legislator Meenakshi Lekhi said, “The BJP has nothing to do with him. When people from within the AAP are questioning the party leadership, we really don’t have much task to do. We can only ask questions in consonance,” The Indian Express reported.
Besides the BJP, the Congress has also demanded Kejriwal step down as Delhi chief minister. Delhi Congress Chief Ajay Maken has asked for an investigation into Mishra’s claims.
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