Kapil Mishra files CBI complaint against Arvind Kejriwal

New Delhi: Sacked Delhi minister Kapil Mishra stepped up his offensive against the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leadership on Tuesday, filing complaints against chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and others with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Mishra, who was suspended from the party on Monday, a day after claiming he saw Kejriwal receiving Rs2 crore in cash from health minister Satyendra Jain, said before meeting the CBI he planned to file three complaints.

“First over Arvind Kejriwal accepting Rs2 crore in cash from Satyendra Jain, second over the Rs50 crore land deal arranged for the chief minister’s brother-in-law by Jain and the third over AAP leaders allegedly misusing party funds on foreign trips,” he said.

CBI spokesperson R.K.Gaur said later the complaints would be examined and verified.

In an open letter addressed to Kejriwal, Mishra mockingly sought the chief minister’s blessings before filing the first information report (FIR) against him.

“‘Today I am going to file a FIR against you. I have learnt to fight corruption from you, but now I will fight against you,” Mishra said, referring to Kejriwal’s Twitter message that “truth will win.”

The Delhi legislator also said he had received 211 complaints since Monday night on alleged corruption in AAP.

Mishra, who on Monday submitted to the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) what he claimed was evidence of Kejriwal trying to influence and delay a probe of alleged corruption amounting to Rs400 crore, will make a detailed statement to the ACB on Thursday.

The alleged corruption relates to a contract for supply of tankers to distribute water to Delhi neighbourhoods. The case dates back to 2012, when the Congress party under Sheila Dikshit ruled Delhi.

The allegations come as an embarrassment to the AAP on top of its poor show in Punjab and Goa assembly elections, and in the Delhi municipal polls.

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s Delhi unit, led by Manoj Tiwari, said it will lodge a complaint with the Election Commission (EC) over AAP’ s alleged involvement in corruption cases and seek its derecognition as a political party.

On Tuesday, in an apparent attempt to deflect public attention, the AAP reiterated allegations that electronic voting machines (EVMs) used in elections had been tampered with.

AAP’s Saurabh Bhardwaj dramatically demonstrated ‘live EVM tampering’ in a special sitting of the Delhi legislative assembly. He claimed that the results from any EVM can be altered in the favour of any political party/candidate with the help of a “secret code”.

AAP members said the EC should acknowledge the concerns being raised by the party. They raised the issue days ahead of an all-party meeting called by the EC to discuss concerns over EVMs on Friday.

After the assembly session, Kejriwal challenged the EC to provide EV machines to AAP, saying, “We will show how to hack it in 90 seconds.”

“He (Bhardwaj) showed how easy it is to hack EVMs and it is being done on a massive scale. It is dangerous for the democracy and the country, and people should raise their voice against it. The ECI can give us its machines, we will show how to hack it in 90 seconds by merely changing its motherboard,” Kejriwal told reporters outside the assembly.

According to an EC statement , it is possible for anyone to make an EVM “look-alike” and demonstrate “magic or tampering” whereas EC EVMs are “technically secured and function under an elaborate administrative and security protocol .”

The Delhi Assembly also adopted a resolution appealing to the President and EC to hold elections through paper trail equipped-EVMs.