Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the Delhi Excise Policy case. Kejriwal is the first sitting Chief Minister to be arrested.
Kejriwal was arrested by the probe agency from his home. The ED’s action came after Kejriwal had repeatedly refused to appear before the federal anti-money laundering agency, calling the summons illegal.
The ED’s summons pertains to the excise policy-linked money laundering case, for which his party colleagues Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain have been jailed. Satyendar Jain is currently out on bail.
Allegations are that Delhi government's excise policy for 2021-22 to grant licences to liquor traders allowed cartelisation and favoured certain dealers who had allegedly paid bribes for it, a charge repeatedly refuted by AAP. The policy was subsequently scrapped and the Delhi Lieutenant Governor recommended a CBI probe, following which the ED registered a case under the PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act).
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Here is how the events unfolded in the evening before AAP supremo Kejriwal was arrested by ED:
On Thursday evening, the ED team arrived at Arvind Kejriwal’s Civil Lines residence hours after Delhi High Court denied him protection from “coercive action” in probe agencies cases against him in the Delhi excise policy case over which he has been summoned nine times so far.
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As the ED team questioned Kejriwal at his residence related to the liquor policy case, he moved the Supreme Court against the Delhi High Court order denying him protection from coercive action.
The Supreme Court, however, said it won’t hear his petition before Friday morning.
The ED’s action comes days after BRS leader K Kavitha was arrested in the case, while Kejriwal was, for the first time, named as a "conspirator".
Reportedly, the mobile phones of AAP chief Kejriwal and his family were confiscated by the ED team, after the probe agency officials went inside his house with a search warrant.
The heavy deployment of security personnel was made outside the residence of Kejriwal, while roads leading to his house were blocked. The contingents of Rapid Action Force (RAF) were also deployed at the spot.
There were reports of heavy sloganeering outside Kejriwal's residence as the probe agency continued to question him with Delhi Mayor, Delhi Assembly Speaker and Arvind Kejriwal's supporters seen outside his residence.
Section 144 was also imposed outside ED headquarters in Delhi.
AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj was not allowed to enter Kejriwal's house while Delhi Police barricaded the roads leading to his house.
AAP had already expressed apprehensions about Kejriwal's arrest.
