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Firing yet another salvo at Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, sacked Delhi minister Kapil Mishra on Sunday alleged that a businessman being probed for a Rs 400-crore scam funded the foreign tours of two top Aam Aadmi Party leaders.
Delhi government spokesperson Nagender Sharma dismissed the allegations and said that Mishra had been given a “horribly wrong script”.
Mishra posed nine questions to his friend-turned-foe Kejriwal including whether he was aware that a Russia trip of AAP leaders Sanjay Singh and Ashutosh “was sponsored by a man who is being probed for a Rs 400-crore high-security number plates scam”.
Mishra also apologised to ex-AAP leaders Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan, who were expelled from AAP in April 2015 for “anti-party activities” after they questioned Kejriwal’s leadership. They floated a new political party Swaraj India last year.
He said that he was working on the directions of Kejriwal and was responsible for their ouster.
While reiterating that he will stay in the AAP to cleanse it, the rebel leader, who has been suspended from the party’s primary membership, invited former India Against Corruption volunteers to help him make Delhi “corruption-free” and “Kejriwal-free”.
The former minister alleged that there was a scam of high-security number plates that came to the fore during the AAP government’s first stint and is currently being probed by the Anti-Corruption Branch.
“Some of the companies that are being probed have a direct link with the person who funded their (Sanjay Singh and Ashutosh) trip,” Mishra alleged.
The AAP government had awarded the contract to a firm for high-security number plates but it was later terminated on the basis of a fact-finding committee’s report, that was constituted by the then Transport Minister Sourabh Bhardwaj.
Delhi government spokesperson Nagender Sharma rubbished Mishra’s allegations in a series of tweets and said that Mishra had no clue of what he was talking about.
“Probe into High Security Number Plates scam was ordered by @Saurabh_MLAgk in 49 days govt in Feb 2014. Then LG Jung reversed the decision.
“In Jan 2016 Delhi government again sent the HSNP file to Delhi ACB despite LG having sent the case for arbitration on company’s request,” he posted on Twitter.
Sharma also said that that the Bharatiya Janata Party had tried to rake up this issue in June last year but went silent when it came to know that file was lying with the Anti-Corruption Branch for months.
“Poor fellow has no clue of what he’s speaking ! Who is misguiding him,” he said.
The posts were retweeted by Ashutosh.
Mishra, who had trained his guns at Kejriwal soon after he was sacked from the ministry, had accused the Aam Aadmi Party chief of taking bribe. He had said that Kejriwal had opposed demonetisation as he allegedly had links with hawala operators.
“I have realised the wrongdoings in the party now. Many people realised these things before and left. But we have to ensure that the party is not left to some corrupt people,” he said.
He had been on a six-day fast to protest the AAP’s “refusal” to disclose the details of the foreign trips of five party leaders.