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The CD which showed one of its candidates allegedly accepting a donation without verification was not genuine, the Aam Aadmi Party claimed here Friday.
The CD, made of a sting operation conducted by a media organisation, whose footage was shown on some TV channels, was not genuine, and has been tampered with, AAP leader Yogendra Yadav said at a press conference in the national capital.
The chief executive officer of mediasarkar.com, the web portal that said it had captured footage showing Shazia Ilmi, Aam Aadmi Party candidate from R.K.Puram in south Delhi, accepting donations without following procedures, said Friday that he would first hand over the CD to the Election Commission.
The media portal chief's statement came in response to a demand from the Aam Aadmi Party that the raw CD be handed over to it for examination.
In a formal letter addressed Thursday to the chief executive officer of mediasarkar.com, the AAP requested that the portal hand over a copy of the raw CD to it to carry out a detailed and proper investigation on the authenticity of the footage.
The AAP asked the portal to hand over the copy of the CD by 11 a.m. Friday.
Addressing a media conference Friday, AAP leader Yogendra Yadav said though the media organisation did not hand over the CD, the party would wait till 3 p.m. If the CD was not delivered, the AAP would take legal action against the organisation, Yadav said.
"The footage is doctored and tampered, there is no authenticity in footage of the CD. This is an effort to dent the clean and honest image of AAP," he said.
"Once the media organisation hands over the copy of the raw CD to us, we will analyse the whole content of the CD in detail, basically listening to all the versions of the candidates and the recording," Yadav said.
Speaking on the occasion, Manish Sisodia, senior AAP leader, said he himself has worked in several media organisations and was aware of ways in which footage could be tampered with.
"What is the problem in giving a copy of the raw CD, specially when candidates from the AAP seen in the footage are ready to opt out of the polls, if found guilty?" asked Sisodia, saying that mediasarkar.com was trying to join forces with the Congress to dent the image of the AAP.
He said it was also the responsibility of TV channels to first check the authenticity of footage before running them.
"The Congress is trying its best to sabotage our party's image, probably because they are scared of our popularity among the Delhiites," Sisodia said.
Yogendra Yadav said that the media cannot just run whatever is given to them. It is a big election, and the media should understand that a lot of such fake efforts are being made to sabotage the party's image, he said.
"Let me make one thing clear: If the footage is genuine, our leaders won't contest elections. At the same time, if it is found that the footage is tampered with and fake, strict action will be taken against mediasarkar.com," Yogendra Yadav said.
