India’s Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Chief Minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday, in connection with alleged liquor policy scam.
In a setback for the opposition, CM Kerjriwal arrested just a week before the Indian National Polls in the graft allegations relating to the city’s liquor policy.
According to the Indian media, Kejriwal has become the first sitting chief minister to be arrested in the history of India. A 12-member team of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Delhi CM Kejriwal at his residence in North Delhi’s Civil Lines this evening.
According to the local media, after the Delhi High Court denied the CM’s request to be shielded from coercive action in the excise policy matter earlier today, the ED team made their way to his home and started questioning him.
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The arrest means the main leaders of the decade-old Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) are in jail, following the arrests last year of two of Kejriwal’s deputies in the same case – which the party has called “dirty politics”.
The agency is investigating allegations that a liquor policy implemented by the Delhi government in 2022, which ended its control over sale of liquor in the capital, gave undue advantages to private retailers. The policy was subsequently withdrawn.
Atishi, an AAP lawmaker from Delhi, said on social media that the party was seeking to quash the latest arrest.”We have asked for an urgent hearing by the Supreme Court tonight itself,” she said.