The war of words between Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley escalated further with AAP firing “questions” at the Finance Minister on Friday.

Hitting back at Jaitley for terming AAP’s allegations of corruption in Delhi & District Cricket Association (DDCA), of which he was president for 13 years, as “vague” and based on “falsehood”, AAP leader Ashutosh said Jaitley was a "master of half truth and beautiful lies".

Posing a question at Jaitley at a press conference here, the AAP leader asked the former DDCA president to name members of a private firm, 21st Century, and wanted to know if it had any of his relatives. “This is a very specific question, nothing vague,” the AAP tweeted.

Ashutosh also accused DDCA of allowing 21st Century to sub-lease 10 corporate boxes at Feroz Shah Kotla stadium, alleging that the firm was owned by Jaitley’s friend and was extended financial benefits of over Rs 5 crore for the deal.

In another question, AAP accused Jaitley of putting pressure on public sector ONGC to give Rs 5 crore to Hockey India and sought to know the reason behind it, and also asked him to clarify his relationship with Hockey India chief Narendra Batra.

Alleging “financial irregularities” in the reconstruction of the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium, Ashutosh said although public sector, EPIL, was paid Rs 57 crore for the project and the balance Rs 57 crore 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 know about these companies and is this not corruption?" he asked.

On Jaitley’s comments in his Facebook post that the Serious Frauds Investigation Office report had not found a “shred of evidence” against him, Ashutosh accused the Finance Minister of hiding the fact that punishment for offences mentioned by the Central agency included imprisonment.

On Thursday, Jaitley had refuted the allegations made by AAP, terming these “a propaganda technique” of Kejriwal to “deflect attention” when he himself was in the "dock" following a CBI raid in the Delhi Secretariat.

Following a CBI raid in Delhi Secretariat in connection with charges against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's Principal Secretary Rajendra Kumar, AAP has been claiming that the Central agency carried out the searches to target the AAP chief and was looking for a file relating to graft in DDCA.

In a separate development, Kirti Azad, a former cricketer and BJP member of Parliament, who has been flagging alleged corruption in DDCA since 2009, is slated to hold a “tell all’ press conference here on Sunday.

Allegations baseless: Batra

Hockey India president Narinder Batra rubbished AAP’s accusation that Jaitley had put pressure on ONGC to give Rs 5 crore to the national federation, terming the allegation as “baseless”.

“They (AAP) are shooting in the dark. I won’t like to comment any further on this topic right now. But when the appropriate time comes, I will address the media with proof,” Batra told PTI.

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