AAP minister Satyendar Jain files criminal defamation case against sacked leader Kapil Mishra
Meanwhile, a Delhi-based businessman has claimed that his four companies had donated Rs 50 lakh each to the party in April 2014.
Delhi minister and Aam Aadmi Party leader Satyendar Jain on Friday filed a criminal defamation case against sacked party minister Kapil Mishra at the Tis Hazari Court, reported ANI. He also filed a complaint against Manjinder S Sirsa, Bharatiya Janata Party MLA from Rajouri Garden.
The defamation case against Mishra came after he alleged illegal funding to AAP and threatened to “expose” Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Mishra’s threat to Kejriwal came after a Delhi-based businessman on Thursday claimed that his four companies had donated Rs 50 lakh each to the party in April 2014. The ousted minister called it a bluff, and said he would reveal the truth about Mukesh Sharma on Friday. “I will expose the biggest lie of Kejriwal tomorrow [Friday],” he tweeted.
Mishra further alleged that AAP had accepted money from hawala operators, a claim made by AAP Volunteer Action Manch in February 2015. On May 14, Mishra had accused Kejriwal and the party’s top leaders of committing financial illegalities and taking Rs 2 crore from four shell companies. He demanded Kejriwal’s resignation 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.
In 2015, the breakaway faction of AAP had alleged that the four donors – Sky line Metal & Alloy Pvt Limited, Sunvision Agencies Pvt Limited, Infolense software solutions Limited and Goldmine & Buildcon Pvt Limited – were shell companies. After the allegations, the Income Tax Department had initiated an inquiry into the matter.
Sharma has been questioned by the Income Tax Department, which is still looking into the allegations. The resident of Ganga Vihar in east Delhi told Hindustan Times that he was ready to face further probe. Accusing Mishra of making “wrong allegations” about AAP’s funding, he challenged Mishra to prove him wrong. “I had donated through cheque,” he told the daily while asserting that he was not related to the party.
Asked why he chose to reveal about the funding three years later, Sharma cited two reasons. “Firstly, being a ‘brahmin’, I don’t do charity for anything in return,” the property and tobacco trader told Hindustan Times. “Also, initially when the issue first came in media I was in Rajasthan and panicked.” About his companies and its registration, Sharma said that three of them were registered in Karawal Nagar and the other in Alipur.
The AAP has rejected all of Mishra’s allegations and said the BJP was behind the claims. Senior leader Sanjay Singh had said that Mishra was simply “parroting” the BJP’s allegations and called it a “ploy” against the AAP. The BJP, however, has said it had no part to play in the ongoing AAP fiasco.
Sirsa, on the other hand, had written to Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal urging him to recover the cost incurred for the special session of the Delhi Assembly from the AAP. In his letter on Wednesday, the MLA had alleged that the session, during which AAP demonstrated how to rig an Electronic Voting Machine, was a “blatant misuse of a constitutional institution” by the party.