The turmoil in the Aam Aadmi Party escalated today with sacked Delhi minister levelling a fresh charge against the Chief Minister – this time over his alleged links to hawala operators and his purported attempts to cover it up.
In a press conference today, Kapil Mishra rubbished the claims of innocence by Kejriwal in a matter related to donation of Rs 2 crore. Kejriwal had retweeted a video of Delhi businessman Mukesh Kumar telling a news channel that he made the donation (Rs 50 lakh through each of his four companies) since he was drawn towards the policies of the AAP.
Today, Mishra not only said that the claims made by the Mukesh were fake, he also said that the businessman was just a face that had been propped up by Kejriwal in his attempt to allegedly shield a hawala operator who is linked to several shell companies and that the funds flowing into the AAP was actually black money.
"This is all an elaborate ploy to launder money, to convert black money into white," Mishra alleged, adding that Kejriwal was the kingpin of this elaborate conspiracy.
To back his claim, Mishra, through a slide presentation, claimed that Kejriwal’s explanation given to the Income Tax department regarding the donations of Rs 2 crore was fake and that Mukesh Kumar was just a front-face.
On May 14, Mishra had alleged that AAP received donations of Rs 2 crore through four cheques of Rs 50 lakh each through four shell companies. Sharma or Kumar claimed yesterday he was the one who donated that money.
"I donated the money to AAP because I thought AAP has come into politics to serve the poor," Mukesh Kumar (referred to as Mukesh Sharma in the video) said yesterday.
In his presentation, Mishra displayed four letters by the companies that he claimed had made the donations to the AAP. Of the two, he said only two bore the signature of Sharma, thus rendering the remaining two donations of Rs 50 lakh each as dubious.
Mishra further claimed that Mukesh was a bank and VAT defaulter, and thus could not donate money to the party.
Mishra showed the letterheads of the four companies – which Mukesh had claimed to be owned by him – of which just two had the signature of Mukesh Kumar. Interestingly, one of them had given the donation of Rs 50 lakh on April 22, 2017, a day before the MCD polls.
Mishra claimed that the entire episode was carefully constructed to shield the name of one Hem Prakash Shukla – a director in Devlin Corp., an entity that has been linked to Rohit Tandon, from whom the Income Tax department recovered a staggering Rs 76 crore during raids in Greater Kailash earlier. Notably, Tandon has also been alleged to have links with the AgustaWestland scam and controversial arms dealer Abhishek Verma.
Mishra then showed what he claimed had been obtained from the Ministry of Corporate Affairs the records of Hem Prakash Shukla. Mishra claimed that he was a director in several firms – including Devlin and the companies that donated the purported amount to AAP.
On May 14, Mishra alleged that AAP leaders close to Kejriwal concealed donations from the public, lied to the Election Commission (EC) and laundered money using 16 shell companies.
He then made a presentation - without official bank documentation - that he claimed included account information of the party.
He alleged a huge discrepancy in 2013-2014 and 2015-2016 between the amounts AAP has in the bank, what it declared to the EC and what it made public on its website.
