 "Kapil Mishra")
The crisis in the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) continues to boil as former minister Kapil Mishra on Tuesday announced that he would be lodging an FIR against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
Mishra's announcement came by way of an open letter and after a day of high drama. Cracking the whip, the AAP on Monday suspended the rebel leader hours after he made a fresh allegation of corruption against Kejriwal, alleging that Health Minister Satyendar Jain had told him that he had settled a Rs 50 crore land deal in favour of Kejriwal's brother-in-law.
The party trashed the sacked minister's allegations and its Political Affairs Committee (PAC) met in the evening and took the decision to suspend Mishra who was sacked as minister on Saturday.
"Mishra has been suspended from the primary membership of the party," an AAP leader told IANS.
On Monday, Mishra escalated his attack on Kejriwal, two days after he was sacked as Water and Tourism Minister.
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He went to the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) and claimed to have evidence in support of his allegations that two people close to Kejriwal tried to influence the probe in the water tanker scam.
He also dared Kejriwal and Jain to undergo a lie detector test and offered to subject himself to such a test.
Mishra also alleged that he had witnessed Kejriwal accepting Rs 2 crore from Jain.
Mishra said he will meet the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officials on Tuesday, give them all the evidence in support of his allegations and file an FIR.
Jain denied Mishra's allegations, saying that "no such land deal took place" and said that he would file a defamation case against Mishra.
"There is a limit to lying. I wasn't present at CM's residence on May 5 (Friday) and I can prove it in many ways," Jain said, adding, "Show us papers (of land deal) or proof if its true?"
"He has lost mental balance and is making baseless allegations as he did not even spare Kejriwal's deceased brother-in-law," he said.
Jain said that Mishra was making allegations against Kejriwal's brother-in-law (Surendra Bansal) who is "no more".
The AAP fielded its senior leader Sanjay Singh to trash Mishra's allegations.
Singh accused the BJP and the central government of being behind Mishra in his campaign against Kejriwal, saying it was part of a larger conspiracy to "finish off" the AAP and to "silence" the opposition.
Singh told the media that the kind of allegations Mishra has levelled makes it clear that "he was being used" to harass Kejriwal and other ministers in the Delhi government.
"Mishra is now speaking the language of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress. He is saying the same things the two parties had been saying for months. This makes it clear who is behind all this," he said.
"While making such serious allegations, Mishra did not even feel it important to clarify when the deal was conducted and which relative of Kejriwal was involved," Singh said.
On Monday, Mishra filed a complaint with the ACB regarding what is known as the water tanker scam, alleging that Kejriwal had delayed action in the case.
"The ACB is under the central government which is ruled by the BJP. It is the BJP which is behind all this," Singh said.
The AAP leader said that at a time when the country was facing serious internal and external security threats, the only priority for the BJP and the central government was to "finish off" the AAP.
Rejecting the BJP's demand for Kejriwal's resignation, Singh said that "severe" allegations of corruption had been made against Finance Minister Arun Jaitley by suspended BJP member Kirti Azad, but nothing happened.
"Despite serious allegations of corruption against Jaitley, he is still holding the post of Finance Minister. So, we do not need to learn the lessons of morality and principles from the BJP and the Congress," Singh said.
Mishra met the media again in the evening to claim that Jain had told him that he managed a Rs 50 crore land deal in Chhattarpur (south Delhi) for Kejriwal's brother-in-law.
"The deal was finalised for the Bansal family," he said.
Rebutting Singh's charge that was speaking the BJP's language, Mishra said he had always spoken stridently against the BJP's policies and the government and decried the way the AAP brands people "who speak against the leadership".
"I would never join the BJP," he said and dared his detractors to provide even a shred of evidence that he was in league with the BJP.
Singh rejected Mishra's allegations about the land deal, saying "these are all wild allegations and without any proof", a view echoed by Jain.
He also said it was a conspiracy to arrest AAP ministers and dismiss the government.
Meanwhile, ACB chief Mukesh Kumar Meena said Mishra did not give any complaint regarding Kejriwal accepting money from Jain.
He said that Mishra came to the ACB office to make a statement regarding the water tanker scam case.
"We will take a detailed statement and then we will start our probe," Meena said.
