Our Bureau
New Delhi
The Enforcement Directorate, which arrested Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the excise policy case on Thursday evening, took him to the agency’s headquarters later. A medical team also arrived at the ED office.
AAP workers and leaders rallied behind Kejriwal following his arrest while leaders of the INDIA bloc also expressed their support for the AAP leader. BJP leaders backed ED action against Delhi Chief Minister saying “truth had to prevail”.
An Enforcement Directorate team arrived at Kejriwal’s residence for questioning in connection with liquor policy case. The team conducted a search operation at his residence and he was arrested in a dramatic turn of events following the Aam Aadmi Party convenor not getting interim protection from arrest in the liquor policy case from the Delhi High Court.
AAP leader and Delhi Minister Atishi said they had moved the Supreme Court to quash Kejriwal’s arrest and have sought an urgent hearing.
“We have moved the Supreme Court for quashing the arrest of Delhi CM @ArvindKejriwal by ED. We have asked for an urgent hearing by the Supreme Court tonight itself,” Atishi said in a post on X.
She had earlier said that Kejriwal will run the government from jail.
“We have received news that ED has arrested Arvind Kejriwal… We have always said that Arvind Kejriwal will run the govt from jail. He will remain the CM of Delhi. We have filed a case in the Supreme Court. Our lawyers are reaching SC. We will demand SC have an urgent hearing tonight,” she said.
AAP workers also staged a protest outside the residence of Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal over ED action. The arrest came days after the announcement of the schedule of the Lok Sabha polls.
AAP leader and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann said “BJP’s political team (ED) cannot put Kejriwal’s ideology behind bars”.
“It is only the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) that can stop the BJP. Thoughts and ideas can never be suppressed,” he said in a post on X.
Other AAP leaders including Saurabh Bhardwaj, Gopal Rai, Raghav Chadha also rallied in his support.
The Delhi High Court did not grant Kejriwal interim protection from arrest in the liquor policy case on Thursday.
The court was hearing a plea by the AAP supremo regarding coercive action against him in connection with the excise policy case.
The arrest of Kejriwal came almost 20 days after Hemant Soren, who was Chief Minister of Jharkhand, was arrested from his residence in an alleged money laundering case linked to the land scam. Hemant Soren resigned from his post the day he was arrested.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi came down heavily on Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the arrest of Kejriwal and accused him of resorting to “dictatorial tactics” to destroy democracy in the country.
The Congress leader also accused the BJP-led NDA government of “capturing institutions”, including the media.
“A scared dictator wants to create a dead democracy. While capturing all the institutions, including the media, breaking up the parties, extorting money from companies, and freezing the accounts of the main opposition party was not enough for the ‘devilish power’, now the arrest of the elected chief ministers has also become a common thing,” he posted on X.
He said that the opposition INDIA bloc will give a “befitting reply to this”.
Terming Kejriwal’s arrest as “unconstitutional”, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said “such shameful scenes are being witnessed for the first time in independent India”.
She said the ‘new low’ in politics and political discourse neither favours Prime Minister Narendra Modi nor his government at the Centre.”
“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 neither suits the Prime Minister nor his government. Fight your critics in the electoral battle, confront them boldly, and of course, attack their policies and working style–all those are par for the course in a democracy. But using all the institutions of the country to fulfill one’s political objective and weakening them by exerting pressure is against every grain of democracy,” Priyanka Gandhi posted on X.
“The bank accounts of the country’s largest Opposition party, the Congress, have been frozen. All Opposition parties and their leaders are under pressure, night and day, from the ED, CBI and IT. One chief minister (Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren) was put in jail and now another (Kejriwal) is behind bars as well. Such shameful scenes are being seen for the first time in the history of independent India,” she added.
CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury strongly condemned the arrest of Delhi CM.
“It’s the second sitting CM of the INDIA bloc to be arrested. Clearly, Modi and the BJP are in panic over people’s rejection in the ongoing elections. 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 in a post on X.
Samajwadi Party (SP) Chief Akhilesh Yadav also lashed out at the BJP.
“Those who are themselves imprisoned in the fear of defeat, what will they do by imprisoning someone else? The BJP knows that it will not come to power again, 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 a post on X.
Trinamool Congress MP Derek O’Brien said, “A large number of AAP leaders and workers had gathered at Kejriwal’s residence who shouted slogans in favour of the Chief Minister. The election process has begun. And now this! Chiefs of political parties, CMs, political leaders, election agents, workers, every opponent- being harassed & arrested like this. What will be the fate of our precious democracy? Let us all save democracy from impending disaster,” he said in a post on X.
Condemning Kejriwal’s arrest, BRS leader KTR Rao said ED and the CBI have “become the chief instruments of repression in the hands of BJP”.
“Political opponents are targeted on unsubstantiated grounds & political vendetta is their sole purpose.”
Former Bihar Chief Minister and RJD leader Lalu Prasad accused the Modi government of trying to sabotage democracy.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin accused BJP of “abusing power” and said its government “smacks of a desperate witch-hunt”
“Ahead of Elections2024, driven by fear of a decade of failures and the imminent defeat, the Fascist BJP Govt sinks to despicable depths by arresting Hon’ble Delhi CM @ArvindKejriwal , following the unjust targeting of brother @HemantSorenJMM,” he said on X.
“Not a single BJP leader faces scrutiny or arrest, laying bare their abuse of power and the decay of democracy. The relentless persecution of opposition leaders by the BJP Govt smacks of a desperate witch-hunt. This tyranny ignites public fury, unmasking BJP’s true colours. But their futile arrests only fuel our resolve, fortifying the #INDIA alliance’s march to victory,” he added.
Several other opposition leaders including Sharad Pawar and Mehbooba Mufti also slammed Kejriwal’s arrest.
BJP leaders fully supported the ED action to arrest Kejriwal in the Delhi excise policy case and said “truth had to prevail”.
Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdeva said Arvind Kejriwal has been 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 triumphed and I believe that the conspiracy hatched by Arvind Kejriwal and his government to push the youth into alcoholism was bound to result in this. The truth had to prevail and Arvind Kejriwal had to be punished for his sins,” Sachdeva said.
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.
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 @ArvindKejriwal by ED. We have asked for an urgent hearing by the Supreme Court tonight itself,” Atishi said in a post on X.
She had earlier said that Kejriwal will run the government from jail.
“We have received news that ED has arrested Arvind Kejriwal… We have always said that Arvind Kejriwal will run the govt from jail. He will remain the CM of Delhi. We have filed a case in the Supreme Court. Our lawyers are reaching SC. We will demand SC have an urgent hearing tonight,” she said.
ED had issued repeated summons to the AAP supremo in the excise policy case and he had skipped them, pointing out that the probe agency had moved the court against him.
According to the ED, the agency wants to record Kejriwal’s statement in the case on issues like the formulation of now scrapped excise policy, meetings held before it was finalized, and allegations of bribery.
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.
