NEW DELHI: Kapil Mishra, sacked as minister after he accused Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal of corruption, was attacked on Wednesday evening as he sat on a hunger strike at his residence in Delhi’s Civil Lines. The attacker, a man named Ankit Bharadwaj, walked up to Mr. Mishra and slapped him several times before he was stopped by the former minister’s supporters. They have now called in the police.
Mr Mishra’s team alleged that Mr Bharadwaj has identified himself as a supporter of Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party. But AAP has said that Mr. Bharadwaj is a member of a BJP youth wing pointing to a Facebook page.
Kapil Mishra was suspended by AAP on Monday evening. This morning, he began the hunger strike demanding that AAP reveal details of foreign trips made by five of its top leaders. He sat all day under a tent pitched near what served as his office till days ago, with a garlanded photograph of Mahatma Gandhi behind him. He has 60 days to vacate the government bungalow, allotted to him as a minister.
Mr Mishra has called his protest a satyagrah or “peaceful agitation” and said he will survive on water till Mr Kejriwal makes the details he wants public.
The letter names the five leaders – including a minister Satyendar Jain and senior leaders Ashish Khetan and Sanjay Singh – whose trips Mr Mishra wants investigated. “I have just requested that details of the foreign travel in the last two years of five people be made public… This will clear all things… I don’t want a big thing, this is just a small thing,” Mr Mishra has written.
“Some people say that all allegations about money laundering and donations will be settled if these details are revealed…You have said the party doesn’t have money to fight elections… Show where all the money for foreign trips comes from and prove me wrong,” Mr Mishra said, asserting that once the details are revealed, “The Chief Minister will be forced to resign.”
He also alleged that he received a phone call from abroad threatening to “shoot me.”
Yesterday, Kapil Mishra went to the Central Bureau of Investigation or CBI with large yellow envelopes that he said contained proof of his allegations against AAP and Mr Kejriwal. He said the envelopes contained his statements, but did not clarify whether that was all he had to show for his charges, among them that he witnessed Mr Kejriwal being handed Rs. 2 crore in bribe money by Satyendar Jain.
He has also alleged that “Mr Jain benefited close relatives of Mr Kejriwal in illegal land deals.”
The CBI has said it will verify and examine Mr Mishra’s allegation.
The Aam Aadmi Party has rubbished what it called the “wild and baseless allegations” of Kapil Mishra, who also said today that an attempt to portray him as a “BJP agent” will not wash. “Why are you calling me that now, why not earlier,” he said.
