AAP names new Law Minister after Tomar's arrest: Who is Kapil Mishra?

After the arrest of former Delhi Law Minister Jitender Singh Tomar over the fake law degree controversy, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in New Delhi on Wednesday named the Delhi Jal Board vice-chairman Kapil Mishra as the new Law Minister.

The 34-year-old Mishra is an AAP MLA from Delhi’s Karawal Nagar constituency. In the 2015 Delhi Assembly elections, Mishra won from his constituency as he got 1,01,865 votes, defeating BJP’s Mohan Singh Bisht by 44,431 votes. He is a first-time MLA.

Known as a Kejriwal loyalist, Mishra has been associated with him since the India Against Corruption (IAC) days, reported PTI.

When Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan upped their ante against the party leadership, he took a lead in starting a signature campaign urging all MLAs to back Kejriwal.

He has worked for non-governmental organisations like Greenpeace and Amnesty International, according to IBNLive .

He is also the co-founder and coordinator of a New Delhi-based youth action group called Youth for Justice. He has been involved in campaigning on various social issues.

Mishra also led a protest over the Jessical Lal murder case, demanding justice in the same.

In 2007, he had also raised his voice against the exploitation of the Yamuna river in the Delhi Assembly, after which he had been detained for a day, according to a report in The Hindu .

He was also one of the first people to protest against the 2010 Commonwealth Games scam. In fact, he also wrote a book called ‘It’s Common v/s Wealth - Exposing Commonwealth Games 2010’ on the issue which was released in 2010, according to IANS.

He took charge as the vice-chairman of the Delhi Jal Board in March this year.

(With agency inputs)