Kejriwal in ED net
Animesh Singh &
Samad Hoque
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, March 21
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday night arrested Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party’s national convener Arvind Kejriwal in a money laundering case linked to the Delhi excise policy scam.
Moves SC as HC bins plea
After the Delhi HC refused him interim protection from arrest, Kejriwal on Thursday moved the SC. His plea is likely to be mentioned for urgent hearing on Friday.
9 summons ED issued to Kejriwal on Nov 2 (2023), Dec 21; Jan 3 (2024), 19; Feb 2, 19, 22, 27, March 16
BJP wants dead democracy
A scared dictator wants to create a dead democracy. INDIA will stop him. Rahul Gandhi, cong
To continue as Delhi CM
Kejriwal will continue as CM. If need be, he will run the govt from jail. There is no rule that stops him from running govt from jail. Atishi, aap
Can’t imprison his thinking
ED is BJP’s political ally… but it can never imprison Kejriwal’s thinking. Bhagwant Mann, punjab cm
Condemn ED action
Strongly condemn Delhi CM’s arrest. Sharad Pawar, NCP Sharadchandra Pawar
TMC slams arrest
We vehemently condemn the arrest of Arvind Kejriwal, the elected CM, especially when the Election Commission is in charge and model code is in place. Derek O’Brien, TMC
The ED arrested Kejriwal after two hours of interrogation. The arrest came hours after the Delhi High Court’s refusal to grant Kejriwal interim protection in the matter. A Bench of Justice Suresh Kumar Kait and Justice Manoj Jain of the Delhi High Court listed the CM’s application seeking protection from arrest for an April 22 hearing, when his main petition challenging the ED summonses is to be taken up.
Kejriwal, citing “political witch-hunt”, had evaded nine ED summonses issued to him in connection with the Delhi liquor scam between November 2, 2023, and March 16, 2024.
With the dramatic development, Kejriwal became the first sitting CM since Independence to be arrested. Jharkhand’s Hemant Soren was recently arrested in a money laundering case related to a land scam after he resigned as the state CM.
Top AAP leadership made it clear that Kejriwal would not resign. Led by Delhi ministers Atishi and Saurabh Bhardwaj, AAP slammed the arrest as politically motivated. Atishi said Kejriwal would govern Delhi from jail, in line with the support he received in “Mai Bhi Kejriwal campaign that reached 23.8 lakh households in Delhi”. Meanwhile, Kejriwal moved the Supreme Court challenging the High Court’s order.
“We have moved the SC for quashing the arrest of the Delhi CM by the ED. We have asked for an urgent hearing by the Supreme Court,” Atishi confirmed.
Kejriwal was taken to ED headquarters at 11 pm nearly two hours after his arrest.
Delhi minister Saurabh Bhardwaj said the ED searched Kejriwal’s house and did not recover anything incriminating.
The arrest comes ahead of the first phase of Lok Sabha poll which AAP is contesting in alliance with the INDIA bloc.
The development could disrupt AAP’s electoral momentum in Delhi, where it is fighting four out of the seven seats in alliance with the Congress and in Punjab, where it is contesting all 13 seats.
Cadres fear demoralisation with party’s top brass, including Manish Sisodia, Satyendar Jain and Sanjay Singh, already in jail over corruption charges.
Last week, the ED had arrested BRS leader K Kavitha in the liquor scam from Hyderabad.
The ED had earlier called Kejriwal a conspirator in the case pertaining to scam. It had claimed that Kavitha conspired with Kejriwal to frame a liquor policy for Delhi that would benefit liquor barons from South India. In return, the ED alleged AAP got Rs 100 crore.
Some accused and witnesses in the probe have allegedly mentioned Kejriwal’s name.
