NEW DELHI : The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday arrested Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the money laundering case related to the alleged liquor policy scam. Earlier today, a division bench of Delhi High Court refused to pass orders granting interim protection from coercive action at this stage to Kejriwal in the case.
Kejriwal has moved the Delhi High Court challenging the summons issued to him by the central probe agency. He has also filed an application seeking interim protection. Mr Kejriwal has become the first serving chief minister to be arrested in the history of Independent India and his party has said he will continue to hold the post.
Earlier the Delhi High Court had rejected a plea seeking protection for the Delhi CM from coercive action in the excise policy-linked money laundering case. Following this the Enforcement Directorate began conducting searches at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s residence on Civil Lines. An ED team, consisting of 12 officials, reached Mr Kejriwal’s residence with a search warrant on Thursday evening and questioned him before his eventual arrest. His and his wife’s phones were confiscated and data was transferred from two tablets and a laptop at his home.
As the ED officials carried out their questioning inside the residence, Delhi Police and Rapid Action Force personnel as well as CRPF teams were deployed outside. Prohibitory orders were imposed in the area outside the residence and several AAP workers, who had gathered to protest Mr Kejriwal’s arrest, were detained.
The Delhi Chief Minister had till now skipped nearly nine ED summons issued to him in the money laundering case.p0New Delhi: In a seismic development in national politics just weeks ahead of the Lok Sabha election, Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal has been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in the alleged liquor policy scam. The probe agency was probing the money laundering angle in the case. the Delhi high court listed the AAP leader’s application seeking protection for further consideration on April 22, when his main petition challenging the summons is scheduled for hearing.
Speaking from outside the chief minister’s residence on Thursday, Delhi minister Atishi said, “We are getting reports that the Enforcement Directorate has arrested Mr Kejriwal. His arrest is a conspiracy by the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Since the investigation of this case began two years ago, not one rupee has been recovered by the ED or the CBI despite over 1,000 raids on AAP leaders and ministers.”
“Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest after the announcement of the Lok Sabha election is a conspiracy. Mr Kejriwal is not just a man, he is a thought. If you think arresting one Kejriwal can finish off the thought, you are wrong. Mr Kejriwal is, was and will remain the Delhi chief minister. We have said from the beginning that he will run the government from jail if need be. No law stops him from doing so,” she said in Hindi.
Pointing out that Mr Kejriwal has not been convicted, Ms Atishi said the fight will go on and the party has approached the Supreme Court against his arrest. “Our lawyers are going to the court for urgent mentioning. We will demand that the case be heard tonight itself,” she said.
The Delhi chief minister’s arrest comes less than a week after BRS leader K Kavitha was taken into custody in the liquor policy case. After her arrest, Mr Kejriwal was, for the first time, named as a conspirator in the case. Ever since the first summons was issued by the Enforcement Directorate in October last year and he was asked to appear on November 2, there has been intense speculation that the Delhi chief minister would be arrested by the agency.
Former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia was put behind bars in connection with the case in February last year, and AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh was taken into custody in October.
Mr Kejriwal has repeatedly said that there was no scam in the Delhi liquor policy and the ED, which he claims is controlled by the BJP, is out to arrest him. The AAP and many other opposition parties have accused the BJP of misusing central agencies against their leaders. The harassment of opposition leaders, they have claimed, has increased in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections, which will begin on April 19.
“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,” AAP leader Atishi said.
Right before the arrest, Kejriwal moved the Supreme Court seeking protection from any coercive action by the ED in the excise policy case. Notably, the ED arrest comes on the same day the Election Commission of India uploaded electoral bond data on its website. In the evening, an ED team arrived at the residence of the Delhi chief minister, shortly after the Delhi high court declined to provide him with any protection from coercive action in
This is the same case in which Aam Aadmi Party leaders Sanjay Singh and Manish Sisodia are in judicial custody after they were arrested during questioning in the matter.Bharat Rashtra Samithi leader K. Kavitha was also arrested in connection with the case last week.According to the Indian Express, AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj said he was denied entry to Kejriwal’s Civil Lines house, with Delhi Police barricading the roads leading to the premises.
“We are not able to contact the CM or his secretary. We are assuming the ED team has confiscated their phones,” he said.“There are clear signs that a raid is underway at the residence and he might be arrested.”
Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav says, “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.”Trinamool Congress condemns the arrest of Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal. “We vehemently condemn the arrest of Arvind Kejriwal, an elected CM, especially when EC is in charge & MCC is in place”, said TMC leader Derek O’Brien
Till date, the ED has issued nine summons to Kejriwal – on March 4, February 26, February 19, February 2, January 18, January 3, and December 22 and November 2 last year, HT reported. On Sunday (March 17), the probe agency issued fresh summons to him asking him to appear before it on March 21 for questioning, which he skipped, the report added.
However, Delhi mayor Shelly Oberoi said, “The matter is going on in the court, April 22 has been decided as the next date. What was the hurry to raid, to arrest, to search?… The way police have been deployed here is condemnable… We have no contact with Arvind Kejriwal. Further intentions will soon become clear…”

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