After evading Central probing agencies for several months, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was finally arrested in the multi-crore liquor scam by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday amid high drama involving multi-layered security forces and Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party supporters.
Kejriwal is also implicated in another scam related to the Delhi Jal Board (DJB), which the ED is probing. The AAP chief had skipped a total of nine ED summons related to the investigation, which has led to several arrests, including that of K Kavitha, daughter of Bharat Rashtra Samiti’s chief K Chandrasekhar Rao. She was arrested by the ED last week.
After former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, Kejriwal is the second sitting Chief Minister in the country to be arrested this year by the ED in a corruption case.
Kejriwal’s arrest came after the Delhi High Court denied him protection relief earlier in the day. Later in the evening, after the ED reached the CM’s residence, Kejriwal’s legal team rushed to the Supreme Court for relief. Sources said the matter will be taken up on Friday.
After two hours of interrogation and searches by a team of top ED sleuths, Kejriwal was arrested from his residence on Flag Staff Road in Civil Lines and later taken to the ED headquarters at Lok Nayak Bhawan in the Capital.
Officials said upon reaching the AAP leader’s residence, the ED team informed the staff that it had a search warrant to raid Kejriwal’s premises. They also mentioned that the team would serve summons and request Kejriwal to join the probe.
Sources said Kejriwal’s mobile phone has been seized by the agency, and there has been no communication between him and his family.
As ED officials carried out their operation inside the CM’s residence, additional Delhi Police personnel, Rapid Action Force (RAF), and CRPF teams were deployed at the Chief Minister’s residence.
The additional deployment was made as the ED sought extra security measures in anticipation of protests by AAP supporters.
The Delhi Police stepped up security and deployed personnel in large numbers along with paramilitary force in anti-riot gear around the Chief Minister’s residence in the Civil Lines area as an ED team reached there.
“The deployment has been made in anticipation of a gathering and protest of AAP workers near his residence,” a police officer said. He said section 144 has also been imposed near Kejriwal’s residence.
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.
“Two companies of RAF (Rapid Action Force) with anti-riot gears have been deployed. The local police and force from the nearby police stations have also called in,” the officer said.
Officers of the rank of deputy commissioner of police and assistant commissioner of police were also deployed. The area was being checked with the help of drones, the officials said. A senior police officer said security has also been increased near the ED office and Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s residence in central Delhi.
Sources said restrictions under section 144 of the CrPC have been imposed near the ED office and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) headquarters in central Delhi.
Police said security has also been increased outside the residence of Delhi Lt Governor VK Saxena.
The arrest of the 55-year-old leader, amid the Lok Sabha election campaign, elicited angry reactions from the AAP. The party said Kejriwal “will continue as the Chief Minister of Delhi. If necessary, he will run the Government from jail. He shall join his former Cabinet colleagues Manish Sisodia, Satyender Jain, and the party’s MP in Rajya Sabha, Sanjay Singh, in jail.
Several Opposition parties, including those in the newly formed alliance INDIA Bloc, as well as the Trinamool Congress, rallied behind the Delhi CM, condemning his arrest. Congress leaders described it as a pure form of tyranny, while TMC spokesman Kunal Ghosh stated that this kind of vindictive politics is unacceptable.
“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 account 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. INDIA Bloc will give a befitting reply to this,” Rahul Gandhi posted on social media.
The BJP demanded that Kejriwal step down as Chief Minister on moral grounds.
Cabinet Minister Atishi, considered to be a close confidant of the AAP convener, is now likely to play a crucial role.
Delhi Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj and Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel also gathered with their supporters in the Civil Lines area and raised slogans against the Modi Government.
AAP leader and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann said, “The political team of BJP (ED) cannot confine Kejriwal’s ideology because the AAP alone can stop BJP. Ideology can never be suppressed,” he wrote on social media.
Reacting to the ED action, AAP MP Raghav Chadha termed the arrest of Kejriwal just before the Lok Sabha elections a “big conspiracy”.
Protests erupted outside Kejriwal’s residence on Thursday night after his arrest. The Delhi Police has detained around two dozen Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) workers, including MLAs, who were trying to block the road near the chief minister’s residence.
Party leaders and workers started gathering in the area while the Enforcement Directorate (ED) was questioning Kejriwal at his residence. AAP leaders and workers raised slogans against the ED and the BJP-led Central Government.
AAP MLAs Jarnail Singh, Ritu Raj, Jai Bhagwan and Abdul Rehman were detained by the police, the party alleged.
Soon after ED reached Kejriwal’s residence in the evening, AAP leaders and Cabinet Ministers gathered outside. They were stopped at the barricades.
Speaker Goel said there was such heavy deployment of security personnel outside Kejriwal’s residence that it seemed as if “they had come to wage a war against Pakistan”.
“Our stand is clear. The whole party wants that he will run the government from jail,” he told reporters.
Media persons who were present outside the residence were also asked to step out of the lane.
AAP workers protested and raised slogans against the ED.
BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra slammed protests by AAP leaders and supporters following their leader’s arrest, and said the drama amounts to a “celebration of corruption”. Neither people nor courts will accept this, Patra said, adding, “Kejriwal, you are corrupt. People of Delhi and people of India know you are corrupt.”
Noting that Kejriwal was served many summonses by the Enforcement Directorate, the BJP leader said the arrest has followed a protracted course of action. Reiterating the BJP’s charges against the Delhi chief minister, Patra asked why the Kejriwal government gave the excise policy its nod without the approval of its Cabinet and then scrapped it overnight.
“Cartelisation was allowed, liquor manufacturers were allowed in wholesale and black-listed firms were allowed in the business at a huge cost to the exchequer,” the BJP spokesperson alleged.
He is reaping what he showed, Patra said.
“It is but natural that if you have evaded the law of the land, ultimately the law will catch up with you,” he said. Despite all the drama and protests by their supporters, various other AAP leaders arrested in the case, including Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh, have not got any relief from the courts they approached, Patra added.
