Ousted Aam Aadmi Party Minister Kapil Mishra — who sat on a hunger strike on Wednesday asking the party to reveal details of foreign trips made by senior leaders — was allegedly attacked at his residence by a man who claimed to be an AAP volunteer.
The attacker, who has been identified as Ankit Bhardwaj, allegedly ran over to Mr. Mishra and hit him on the neck before he was pulled aside by Mr. Mishra’s supporters. The former Cabinet Minister, however, did not sustain any injuries. The attacker was roughed up and his clothes were torn off by the mob.
“He [Mr. Mishra] has betrayed the party. He does not deserve to live,” the attacker kept shouting, while he was being dragged away by the crowd. Mr. Mishra refused to blame anyone for the attack and said that if any of his supporters retaliate to such attacks then he would give up water too in the coming days of the strike. “I was prepared for such attacks when I started this fight against corruption,” he said.
AAP sees BJP hand
AAP leaders have, however, alleged that this attacker was not a party worker but a member of the BJP. A screen grab of his Facebook profile, which was circulated by the AAP after the attack, showed that he was the State executive member of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), the youth body of the BJP.
BJP’s Bhardwaj clarified via a Facebook post that he was being misunderstood as being the attacker, who perhaps shared the same name. “I’m not at all connected with this incident,” he said.
Mr. Mishra started his hunger strike at 8 a.m. on Wednesday after he alleged that five AAP leaders have been making foreign trips with the exchequer’s money.
He said senior leaders Sanjay Singh, Raghav Chadha, Ashish Khetan, Durgesh Pathak and Satyendar Jain have been making trips abroad when the party had been claiming that it did not have money even to fight elections. Mr. Mishra said he would continue with his ‘satyagrah’ till the CM revealed the details of the trip and also its source.
