AAP moves SC against the arrest, calls for nationwide protests
New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was on Thursday night arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in an excise policy-linked money laundering case, officials said, in a big setback to his Aam Aadmi Party and the Opposition INDIA bloc just ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
The arrest, the first of a serving chief minister, came hours after the Delhi High Court refused to grant protection to the AAP national convenor from any coercive action by the central probe agency.
The arrest of the 55-year-old bureaucrat-turned-activist-turned-politician at a time when the AAP seeks to expand its political footprint in the upcoming general elections drew strong condemnation from his party which is in power in Delhi and Punjab.
The AAP said Kejriwal will continue as the Chief Minister of Delhi and that if need be, he will run the government from jail. The party also called for nationwide protests outside the BJP offices, Delhi minister Gopal Rai said.
The BJP, however, demanded that Kejriwal step down as Chief Minister on moral grounds.
After his arrest, Kejriwal was brought to the ED office in central Delhi around 11.25 pm.
Delhi minister Atishi said they have moved the Supreme Court for quashing the arrest of Kejriwal and “asked for an urgent hearing…tonight itself.”
But court sources said no special bench was being set up on Thursday night.
On a day of fast-paced developments, a 10-member ED team led by an additional director reached Kejriwal’s official residence in the national capital soon after the High Court order and carried out searches. The AAP chief was arrested more than two hours after the ED team arrived at his residence, officials said.
Officials said the ED would produce the Chief Minister before a court here on Friday and seek his custody for interrogation in the case. This is the 16th arrest by the ED in the case that has hit the AAP.
Kejriwal had skipped nine summonses issued by the agency for questioning, the latest being for Thursday, March 21. He has called these summonses “illegal”.
The ED officials questioned Kejriwal briefly before making the arrest. Some seizures have also been made, sources said but gave no details.
AAP minister Saurabh Bharadwaj said the ED did not find any evidence during the searches and that the agency found Rs 70,000 which was returned.
As the ED officials carried out their action inside, additional Delhi police personnel and Rapid Action Force (RAF) and CRPF teams were deployed around the Chief Minister’s residence.
The additional deployment was made as the ED sought extra security measures in anticipation of protests by AAP supporters.
A large number of AAP workers and leaders gathered near the Chief Minister’s residence and shouted slogans hailing Kejriwal and denouncing the ED action.
The Delhi police detained around two dozen AAP workers, including MLAs, who were trying to block the road during their protests.
The police also stepped up security around the ED office.
During the day, Kejriwal moved the Supreme Court against the High Court’s order denying him any relief in the matter.
In Kejriwal’s absence, the party stares at uncertainty as many of its other senior leaders are either in jail or in political obscurity.
His trusted aides – Sanjay Singh and Manish Sisodia – are in prison in connection with the excise policy case, while another close aide Satyendar Jain is in jail in a separate money laundering case.
The challenge before the AAP now is to come up with a worthy leader who could handle both the party and its government in Delhi in the absence of Kejriwal.
The ED’s action is virtually a replay of what transpired during the arrest last week of Bharat Rashtra Samithi leader K Kavitha, who is now in ED custody in the same case.
The case pertains to alleged corruption and money laundering in formulating and executing the Delhi government’s excise policy for 2021-22, which was later scrapped.
Kejriwal’s name has been mentioned multiple times in the chargesheets filed by the ED. The agency has alleged that the accused were in touch with Kejriwal for formulating the excise policy that resulted in undue benefits to them in return for which they paid kickbacks to the AAP.
BJP jittery ahead of LS polls: Oppn
New Delhi: Several political parties condemned Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest by the ED on Thursday, claiming that it shows how “jittery” the ruling BJP at the Centre is with less than a month to go for the Lok Sabha polls.
The Opposition parties also accused the BJP of indulging in vendetta politics.
The Congress alleged the BJP is scared of the upcoming elections and is creating all kinds of problems for the Opposition out of panic.
Another AAP ally NCP(SP) chief Sharad Pawar said Kejriwal’s arrest showcases the depth to which the BJP will stoop for power.
“‘INDIA’ stands united against this unconstitutional action against Arvind Kejriwal,” Pawar said in a post on X.
Reacting to the development, Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury claimed that the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi are in “panic” over their impending rejection by people in the Lok Sabha polls.
“Strongly condemn the arrest of Delhi CM, Shri Arvind Kejriwal by the ED. It’s the second sitting CM of the INDIA bloc to be arrested,” Yechury said in a post on X.
“Clearly, Modi and the BJP are in panic over people’s rejection in the ongoing elections,” he added.
“All Opposition leaders who defected and joined the BJP are protected and patronised. They are the ‘Satya Harishchandras’! These arrests will only cement people’s desire to defeat BJP, defend democracy and Indian Constitution,” he said.
CPI general secretary D Raja claimed that the BJP’s “desperation” before the general election is on full display.
“They know the hollowness of their claims of 400 seats and that’s why Opposition is being targeted by abusing central agencies. The arrest of Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and the arrest of then Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren show how jittery the BJP is. This harassment is only intended to intimidate the Opposition.
“People will give a befitting answer to this in elections by throwing BJP out of power,” Raja said in a post on X.
The Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress questioned the arrest at a time when the model code of conduct is in place.
“The election process has begun. And now this! Chiefs of political parties, CMs, political leaders, election agents, workers, every opponent being harassed and arrested like this. What will be the fate of our precious democracy,” the TMC’s parliamentary party leader in the Rajya Sabha Derek O’Brien said in a post on X.
Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav said Kejriwal’s arrest “will give birth to a new people’s revolution”.
“Those who are themselves imprisoned in the fear of defeat, what will they achieve by imprisoning someone else? BJP knows that it will not come to power again and because of this fear, it wants to remove the Opposition leaders from the public by any means at the time of elections, arrest is just an excuse,” the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said in a post on X.
People’s Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti said Kejriwal’s arrest reeks of political vendetta and growing authoritarianism.
“The arbitrary arrest of yet another CM by ED reeks of political vendetta and growing authoritarianism,” the former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister said in a post on X.