The Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), under cloud after a sting operation showed some of its leaders purportedly raising funds through “illegal’’  means, on Friday said that it had formed a committee to probe the matter and was mulling legal action against the Web portal.

The party, which came into the limelight on an anti-corruption plank, has set up a committee consisting of psephologist Yogendra Yadav and Sanjay Singh to look into the allegations.

“The committee has decided to review the evidence presented to the public and take a decision on this issue within the next 24 hours,’ a release by AAP said.

On Thursday, a sting operation, conducted by Web portal, Media Sarkar, alleged that several AAP leaders such as its media faces Shazia Ilmi and Kumar Vishwas, who were contacted for their help in recovering money from individuals and getting the land deals done, agreed to extend their support in return for donations in cash.

Ilmi had even offered to step down from fighting elections till she was proved clean.

Sting operation

Meanwhile, Kejriwal dismissed the sting operation as a “conspiracy” against his party, adding that his party would not compromise on the issue of corruption.

AAP said it had asked the Web portal to provide unedited raw footage of the sting operation, which refused to do so.

Meanwhile, former TV journalist and CEO of the Web portal Media Sarkar, Anuranjan Jha, said he would hand the raw footage to some constitutional body.

“Why should I give them the unedited CD. I am ready to hand it over to some constitutional body, and since it is a matter related to election, so we would voluntarily handover the CD to the Election Commission,’’ he told agencies.

Meanwhile, Delhi Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, at an interaction with the media hereon Friday, took a dig at AAP, saying the “face of the party had changed from what was presented to the people earlier.”

She said “initially AAP touched the emotions of the people, but it now appears that it was really an exercise in self-certification’’.

Dikshit, who is contesting elections from the New Delhi constituency, is pitted against Kejriwal and BJP's Vijender Gupta. 

aditi.n@thehindu.co.in