Enforcement Directorate arrests Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in alleged liquor coverage rip-off
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal being taken away from his residence after he was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in an excise policy-linked cash laundering case in New Delhi on March 21.
| Picture Credit score: ANI
Following months of suspense, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on March 21 arrested Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Celebration (AAP) nationwide convener Arvind Kejriwal within the cash laundering case associated to the alleged liquor coverage rip-off. Kejriwal was arrested from his residence amid tight safety, hours after the Delhi Excessive Courtroom denied him interim safety from the Central company’s coercive motion and listed the matter for listening to on April 22.
The AAP then moved the Supreme Courtroom towards the ED’s motion for pressing listening to. The apex court docket is prone to take up the matter on March 22.
Kejriwal, who has additionally been issued summons by the ED over alleged irregularities in awarding Delhi Jal Board contracts, is the second Chief Minister after Jharkhand’s Hemant Soren to be arrested by the Central company with out trial. Whereas Soren, additionally the chairperson of Jharkhand’s ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, was arrested on January 31 in a cash laundering case shortly after he resigned as Chief Minister, Kejriwal and his social gathering have declared that he’ll run the federal government from the jail.
Additionally Learn | Decoding AAP’s sport plan
Earlier on March 15, the ED had arrested Bharat Rashtra Samithi chief and Telangana MLC Okay. Kavitha in reference to the identical case. Kejriwal’s arrest coincides with the revelations concerning the Narendra Modi authorities’s electoral bond scheme. On February 15, the Supreme Courtroom declared the opaque mode of political funding, which benefited the BJP probably the most, to be unconstitutional.
Crackdown on opposition leaders
The arrests are being seen as part of the bigger crackdown on opposition leaders by Central businesses. In response to the opposition events, 95 per cent of the circumstances filed by the Central probe businesses since 2014—when the BJP got here to the ability on the Centre—are towards their leaders.
Earlier than his arrest, Kejriwal had skipped 9 summons by the ED, describing them as “unlawful” and “politically motivated”. At current, senior AAP leaders equivalent to Delhi’s former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh are in judicial custody. Former Delhi Well being Minister Satyendra Jain and former AAP communications in-charge Vijay Nair, who is claimed to be the primary fundraiser for the social gathering, are at present out on medical bail.
Aam Aadmi Celebration (AAP) employees taking out a march protesting towards the arrest of social gathering chief and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in New Delhi on March 21.
| Picture Credit score:
R.Okay. Nithin
On March 19, Sanjay Singh, who was re-elected to the Rajya Sabha, took oath after a Delhi court docket permitted him to go to Parliament. He has been in Tihar Jail since October 2023 in reference to the now-scrapped Delhi excise coverage case.
The AAP authorities’s liquor coverage of 2021-22, which led to the privatisation of the liquor commerce via public auctioning, is on the core of the controversy. In response to the abstract of the circumstances filed by the CBI and the ED, the alleged rip-off triggered a lack of Rs.2,873 crore to the Delhi authorities. A non-public firm allegedly paid Rs.30 lakh in bribes to members of the AAP authorities to acquire a wholesale liquor licence. The corporate reportedly raised Rs.1,333 crore in gross sales in 13 months, allegedly made a revenue of Rs.192.8 crore in simply 8 months, and is claimed to have given Rs.100 crore to AAP leaders as kickbacks. In response to the CBI, the rip-off includes a bunch of businessmen who conspired in Hyderabad in June 2021 to make a quick buck via the Delhi authorities’s liquor coverage.
Additionally Learn | AAP faces existential disaster as liquor rip-off clouds its anti-corruption picture
The ED had filed two prison complaints towards Kejriwal in an area Delhi court docket alleging non-compliance with 9 summons. Final week, Kejriwal appeared earlier than the court docket and was granted bail after he furnished a bail bond.
Kejriwal’s arrest comes at a time when the Modi authorities is being more and more attacked by the opposition for weaponising Central businesses towards them within the wake of the 2024 Lok Sabha election. Earlier on March 21, senior Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, and social gathering president Mallikarjun Kharge had raised questions concerning the credibility of the election course of. Throughout a press convention in New Delhi, they slammed the BJP-led authorities for freezing of the Congress’ accounts, calling it a “prison motion” by the Prime Minister and the Residence Minister.
Opposition reacts to Kejriwal’s arrest
Reacting sharply to Kejriwal’s arrest, opposition leaders accused the Modi authorities of demolishing democracy. “A scared dictator needs to create a lifeless democracy. Whereas capturing all of the establishments together with the media, breaking apart the events, extorting cash from firms, and freezing the account of the primary opposition social gathering was not sufficient for the ‘devilish energy’, now the arrest of the elected Chief Ministers has additionally develop into a typical factor. INDIA will give a befitting reply to this,” Congress MP Rahul Gandhi wrote in a submit on X.
डरा हुआ तानाशाह, एक मरा हुआ लोकतंत्र बनाना चाहता है।
मीडिया समेत सभी संस्थाओं पर कब्ज़ा, पार्टियों को तोड़ना, कंपनियों से हफ्ता वसूली, मुख्य विपक्षी दल का अकाउंट फ्रीज़ करना भी ‘असुरी शक्ति’ के लिए कम था, तो अब चुने हुए मुख्यमंत्रियों की गिरफ्तारी भी आम बात हो गई है।
INDIA इसका…
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) March 21, 2024
Equally, Nationalist Congress Celebration (Sharadchandra Pawar) chief Sharad Pawar described the arrest as “unconstitutional”. In a submit on X, he wrote: “This arrest showcases the depth to which BJP will stoop for energy.”
CPI(M) common secretary Sitaram Yechury stated on X: “It’s the second sitting CM of the INDIA bloc to be arrested. Clearly, Modi and the BJP are in panic over folks’s rejection within the ongoing elections. All opposition leaders who defected and joined the BJP are protected and patronised. They’re the ‘Satya Harishchandras’! These arrests will solely cement folks’s need to defeat BJP, defend democracy and Indian Structure.”
Strongly condemn the arrest of Delhi CM, Shri Arvind Kejriwal by the ED.
It is the second sitting CM of the INDIA bloc to be arrested.
Clearly, Modi and the BJP are in panic over folks’s rejection within the ongoing elections.
All opposition leaders who defected and joined the BJP…
— Sitaram Yechury (@SitaramYechury) March 21, 2024
AAP common secretary Sandeep Pathak wrote on social media: “The Bharatiya Janata Celebration and (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi can pay closely for this transfer.”
Trinamool Congress MP Saket Gokhale highlighted that because the Mannequin Code of Conduct is in pressure, the “Election Fee (EC) has superintendence over all authorities equipment”. On the query of the ED informing the EC about their plans to arrest Arvind Kejriwal, he wrote on X: “Did EC study the grounds for arresting a sitting CM weeks earlier than Lok Sabha elections? EVERY establishment has contributed to the destruction of democracy – a shameful chapter of which we witnessed tonight in Delhi.”
