Thursday 28 November 2013

AAP sting operation: Website says will not give raw footage.

The web site that conducted a sting operation on some leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), on Friday said that it would not hand over raw footage of the incident to the latter.

Chief Executive Officer of the web portal mediasarkar.com, Anuranjan Jha, was quoted by various television channels, as saying: " We will not hand over the tape to the AAP. Representatives of AAP can come to our offices to see the footage. The AAP is under public scrutiny now. What are the grounds for handing over the tape to the AAP."

The AAP, however, claimed that the tapes have been doctored and insisted on the raw footage of the sting operation being handed over to them, failing which, it said it would launch legal proceedings against mediasarkar.com.



AAP leader Yogendra Yadav told a press conference here that the alleged tapes seem to be "doctored", adding "we want the whole truth to be out."

"We had sent a letter and email asking Anuranjan Jha for the raw footage of the sting. But he has not responded," Yadav said.

A controversial sting operation has alleged that several AAP leaders, at least eight of them, were contacted for their help in the recovery of money from individuals and getting land deals done, and they readily agreed to extend their support in return of donations in cash to the AAP.

AAP leader Shazia Ilmi, who was one of the people nailed in the sting operation,  today offered to withdraw her candidature from Delhi Assembly elections after the sting operation came to the light.




"It is an extremely important fight for the AAP. But because of the underhand shoddy sting operation, I will not allow my party''s image to be sullied. I offer to withdraw my candidature and not contest elections until and unless my name is cleared", Ilmi said.

Dismissing the sting operation as a conspiracy against his party, AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal said he knew who were behind it, as BJP and Congress have been routed by AAP.

In a bid to pacify the whole situation, Kejriwal said on a microblogging website Twitter: "Some sting ops done on our candidates. Our team, including Sanj Singh n Yog Yadav, looking into it. We will not spare if anyone is guilty (sic)."

He further vowed not to compromise on the issue of corruption.

Yadav further requested the media to verify the authenticity of the CD before showing it on channels.  

Here is what the party leaders had to say on Friday:

-We will not accept edited CD as a truth.
-Aam Aadmi Party calls the sting operation a larger conspiracy against the party.
-Kejriwal's party 3 PM as the deadline to submit raw footage.
-If we do not get the tapes it will be proved that this was an attempt to malign us.
-People of the country have the right to know the truth.
-If you see the entire recording you will see understand that frame-by-frame it is doctored.
-We will take legal action against the website if they are tring to target us.
-We haven't accepted the resignation of Shazia Ilmi as of now.

Shazia tweets: It is clear this was a sting operation not for fact finding, but to elicit some words that could be twisted around to suit the producer of this programme.

Vijendra Gupta: Anna ji expressed his doubt few days ago. Now, his doubt has been proved directly. Why isn't Kumar Viswas coming into view now? The entire nation had faith in Anna and now Anna himself has expressed his doubt about AAP.

JP Agarwal: Party who has no history of its own does thing like this. People who are involved should be punished. Strict enquiry should be made.

Reacting to the allegations, Ilmi had on Thursday said, "It is an extremely important fight for AAP. But because of the underhand shoddy sting operation, I will not allow my party's image to be sullied. I offer to withdraw my candidature and not contest elections until and unless my name is cleared."

The sting operation, conducted by Media Sarkar, alleged several leaders of AAP, who were contacted for their help in recovery of money from individuals and getting land deals done, readily agreed to extend their support in return for donations in cash to AAP.

AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal dismissed the sting operation as a "conspiracy" against his party but said it will not compromise on the issue of corruption.

"We will not spare anyone if found guilty," he said, adding he knew who were behind it as BJP and Congress have been "routed" by AAP.

The video purportedly showed a reporter meeting Ilmi posing as a representative of a company and sought her help to teach a lesson to a rival company.


Initially, Ilmi refused to help the reporter without legal documents but later allegedly agreed to help her even without documents when the reporter offered her donations in cash.

Ilmi is also shown in the video allegedly telling the reporter that the party accepts donations in cash.

The sting operations were also done on AAP leader Kumar Vishwas and candidates from Kondli (Manoj Kumar), Sangam Vihar (Dinesh Mohaniya), Okhla (Irfan Ullah Khan), Rohtas Nagar (Mukesh Hooda), Deoli (Prakash) and Palam (Bhawna Gaur).

Reacting to allegations of funds misuse by AAP, BJP leader V.K. Malhotra said the sting operation has "exposed AAP totally".

"Earlier also Anna Hazare condemned them for taking all this money which was collected at Hazare's agitation for election purpose.

"Elections are in Delhi but money is coming from USA, UK and other places. If they take money from outside and contest election in Delhi, then tomorrow they can sell India's interest also by taking foreign money," said Malhotra.

Ilmi is a candidate of AAP from RK Puram Assembly constituency.

After the sting operation, AAP convened an emergency meeting of its political affairs committee which decided to take action against the candidates within 24 hours after going through the CD of the sting operation.

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