AAP sharpens attack on Jaitley: Don’t mislead, answer our questions

“A CBI officer told me yest that CBI has been asked to target all opp parties n finish those who don’t fall in line,” Kejriwal tweeted Friday.

Jaitley had refused to comment on Kejriwal’s allegations, calling them “vague” and “absolute rubbish”.

“These questions are specific, direct and to the point. We expect Mr Jaitley to give a point-wise factual reply instead of misleading the nation once again… ” the AAP said in a statement.

Ashutosh accused the DDCA, during Jaitley’s tenure, of allowing private firm 21st Century to sub-lease 10 corporate boxes at Feroz Shah Kotla stadium and claimed the firm, allegedly owned by a friend of Jaitley’s, was extended financial benefit to the tune of over Rs 5 crore for the deal.

The party asked Jaitley if it was true that BJP MP Kirti Azad had written a letter to him on September 13 stating, “Illegal corporate boxes were constructed and were sub-leased to 10 corporate houses. A company close to you and your family, 21st Century, was tasked to sell/sublease these boxes for 10 years at Rs 36 crore, for which a commission of Rs 5.4 crore was paid to the said company, even when it was commonly known that you had personally spoken with companies like ONGC to get them to illegally sub-lease these boxes, and that 21st Century had very little to do with sub-leasing these boxes. Why was commission paid to them is perhaps known to you only?” The AAP also asked Jaitley to clarify who the members of 21st Century were and whether any of them were his family members.

The party accused Jaitley of putting pressure on ONGC to give an amount of Rs 5 crore to Hockey India and sought to know the reason behind it. The AAP claimed that EPIL, a public entity, was paid Rs 57 crore for the project; the remaining Rs 57 crore out of the total expenditure of Rs 114 crore was distributed among nine companies.

“The registered address, e-mail and directors of these companies were same. Did Jaitley not know about these companies and is it not corruption.

“You lied through your teeth in your blog yesterday, that these Rs 114 crore were paid to a PSU called EPIL. But Mr Jaitley, the fact is that not Rs 114 crore but only Rs 57 crore were paid to EPIL and rest of the money, i.e. Rs 57 crore, was paid to private companies without any competitive bidding or tenders.” the AAP claimed in its statement. It asked Jaitley to explain his relationship with these “hand picked” companies.

The AAP also accused Jaitley of hiding the fact that the irregularities in DDCA “were criminal in intent and punishable with imprisonment under sections 209 and 211 of the Companies Act 1956 and that’s the reason that the Delhi High Court had stayed the compounding.”

Meanwhile, PTI reported that Lokesh Sharma, managing director of 21st Century Media Private Limited, issued a legal notice on the party seeking an unconditional apology and said that criminal defamation proceedings will be initiated against the party otherwise. The notice, served on AAP leaders Ashutosh and Sanjay Singh, accused them of making allegations against him and Jaitley, which were “baseless and defamatory and are factually false”.