 "Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal arrested by ED in excise policy-linked money laundering case")
Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday evening after hours of questioning in the excise policy case. The move comes hours after the Delhi High Court earlier today refused to grant any protection to the CM from coercive action.
Kejriwal has repeatedly refused to appear before the federal anti-money laundering agency, calling the summonses illegal.
AAP leader and Delhi Minister Atishi said they had moved the Supreme Court for quashing Kejriwal’s arrest and have sought an urgent hearing.“We have moved the Supreme Court for quashing the arrest of Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal by ED. We have asked for an urgent hearing by the Supreme Court tonight itself,” Atishi said in a post on X.
Atishi said that Kejriwal will remain the CM of Delhi and run the government from jail.
Senior BJP leader and MP Manoj Tiwari said “Kejriwal suffered the same fate that a corrupt person faces. No matter how many tricks a corrupt person does, he always comes under the clutches of the law. After the arrest of Arvind Kejriwal, the people of Delhi will finally get justice. People are celebrating his arrest. The person who became a crusader of corruption has now been arrested in a corruption case,”.
JKPDP chief Mehbooba Mufti called Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest a “political vendetta and growing authoritarianism”
“This cowardly (act) has exposed fears of the ruling party now resorting to desperate measures by manipulating elections even before they are held. History has shown that tyranny never prevails in the face of unified resistance. We will not be intimidated,” Mufti said in an X post.
Congress’ Delhi unit chief Arvinder Singh Lovely has arrived at Arvind Kejriwal’s residence in a show of support to the AAP national convenor following his arrest by the ED in a liquor policy scam case.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsSamajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav slammed the BJP over Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest accusing the Saffron party of trying to “remove the opposition leaders from the public by any means at the time of election”.
“Those who are themselves imprisoned in the fear of defeat, what will ‘they’ do by imprisoning someone else? BJP knows that it will not come to power again, and due to 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. This arrest will give birth to a new people’s revolution,” Yadav said in an X post.
West Bengal BJP chief Sukanta Majumdar said that BRS leader K Kavitha’s arrest in the excise policy case was an indication that a big arrest will be made in the coming days.“In the excise policy case, a few days ago, BRS leader K. Kavitha was also arrested. This was an indication that a big arrest will be made in this case in the coming days. It was natural that the last string of this case had to reach Arvind Kejriwal. Former Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia has also been arrested in this case. His arrest was just a matter of time,” Majumdar said.
Calling Kejriwal “blatantly dishonest,” BJP leader Gaurav Bhatia said that the people of India are welcoming his arrest.“The people of India and especially the people of Delhi, are welcoming the arrest of the blatantly dishonest Arvind Kejriwal. It has become clear that Arvind Kejriwal is the kingpin of the liquor scam,” he said.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge called Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest BJP’s efforts to “weaken the opposition by all means and illegal means before the elections”.
“If there was real confidence of victory then the accounts of the main opposition party – Congress Party would not have been frozen by misusing the constitutional institutions. Leaders of opposition parties are not targeted right before the elections. The truth is that BJP is already scared of the upcoming election results and in panic is creating all kinds of problems for the opposition. It’s time for change! This time…out of power!!” Kharge said in an X post.
Reacting to the development Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has termed the arrest ‘unconstitutional’.
“Targeting Delhi Chief Minister Shri Arvind Kejriwal in this manner due to elections is completely wrong and unconstitutional. Lowering the level of politics in this manner suits neither the Prime Minister nor his government,” Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said in an X post following the Delhi chief minister’s arrest by the ED,” she said.
Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdeva termed his arrest as an “end to political theatrics” he was doing. “Arvind Kejriwal was continuously making excuses in the liquor policy scam since 2020-21 and the kind of political theatrics he was doing has been put to an end today. Today finally the truth has won and I believe that the conspiracy hatched by Arvind Kejriwal and his government to push the entire youth into alcoholism was bound to result in this. Truth had to prevail and Arvind Kejriwal had to be punished for his sins,” he added.
Kejriwal on Thursday moved the Supreme Court against the high court’s order denying him protection from coercive action in an excise policy-linked money laundering case, sources told PTI.
The move came after an Enforcement Directorate (ED) team reached Delhi Chief Minister’s residence on Thursday evening. The Delhi High Court earlier today refused to grant any protection to the Delhi CM from coercive action.
Kejriwal has repeatedly refused to appear before the federal anti-money laundering agency, calling the summonses illegal.
The Delhi Police stepped up security and deployed additional personnel around Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s residence in Civil Lines Thursday evening as an Enforcement Directorate (ED) team reached there in connection with an excise policy-linked money laundering case, officials said.
#WATCH | Delhi: AAP leader and Delhi Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj says, ".....The central government is using all its clout to finish off a small party (AAP) that has just arrived. I am saying again that they can arrest Arvind Kejriwal, but not his idea and mindset. The more you… pic.twitter.com/QYqSfR03o1
— ANI (@ANI) March 21, 2024
“The deployment has been made in anticipation of a gathering of AAP workers near his residence,” a police officer said.
Barricades were put up on the lane leading to his official residence in Civil Lines in north Delhi and additional police personnel were deployed there, officials said.
The Delhi High Court on Thursday refused to grant Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal any protection from coercive action in an excise policy-linked money laundering case.
The case pertains to alleged corruption and money laundering while formulating and executing the Delhi government’s excise policy for 2021-22, which was later scrapped.
Two senior AAP leaders, Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh, are in judicial custody in the excise policy case. Sisodia, who was the then Delhi Deputy Chief Minister, was arrested by the CBI on February 26 following several rounds of questioning. On October 5, ED arrested Sanjay Singh, who is a Rajya Sabha member.
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