Team Anna expels Mufti Shameem Kazmi for recording proceedings

Noida (UP), Apr 22 (PTI) Fresh cracks surfaced in Team Anna today with the expulsion of a Muslim leader after he was accused of secretly recording proceedings of a core committee meeting but he dismissed the charge and claimed he quit the camp as the group was turning anti-Muslim. High drama was witnessed at Team Anna's core committee meeting in Noida this afternoon when Mufti Shameem Kazmi, who was associated with the anti-corruption movement from the beginning, was allegedly found recording the proceedings. Kazmi stormed out of the meeting presided by activist Anna Hazare and announced his resignation to the media outside the venue. "He was caught red-handed," prominent Team Anna member Arvind Kejriwal, who was one of the key members to face Kazmi's ire, told reporters. Presided over by Hazare, the meeting was called to discuss the anti-corruption movement's future course of action against the backdrop of growing unease in Team Anna over the "one-up manship" of yoga guru Ramdev, with whom they had stitched an alliance to fight for the cause. Team Anna sought to put the blame on all news leaks on the deliberations of its previous meetings to Kazmi and said they were astonished earlier how media was getting details of the meetings while it was underway. Claiming that he does not know how to record a conversation using a mobile phone, Kazmi claimed that Hazare was unhappy with the team and that Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia were trying to run the movement like a "private limited company". Kejriwal said the allegations does not deserve any reaction from their side. "The Core Committee was on and one of us noticed that Kazmi was recording the proceedings. We got hold of his phone and found that there were three clips of recording. We sought his explanation but he walked out in a huff," another Team Anna member Kumar Vishwas said. "On earlier occasions also, the details of the meeting were coming on media even when the deliberations were on. We were wondering who was behind it. This is a breach of confidence. Anna asked him to stay away from the next few meetings but he came out and said something else," he said.