New Delhi: Arvind Kejriwal, the chief minister of Delhi, was on Thursday arrested in connection with graft allegations relating to the city’s liquor policy, his party said, a setback for the opposition ahead of elections.
On Friday, during a protest by the party against Kejriwal’s arrest by the Enforcement Directorate, AAP ministers Atishi and Saurabh Bharadwaj were detained by the police. Kejriwal decided to withdraw his petition from the Supreme Court about his arrest, as per NDTV sources.
Now, the chief minister plans to go to a lower court regarding his arrest, which happened on Thursday night when a 12-member team from the probe agency came to his official residence with a search warrant.
The investigation agency has started questioning the chief minister. Despite being arrested, AAP stated that Kejriwal would continue his duties as chief minister even from jail. The party announced nationwide protests against the arrest, starting at Delhi’s ITO, where security has been increased. Riot police have been deployed, and roads leading to AAP’s office in Delhi have been blocked.
This is the first time a sitting chief minister has been arrested in Independent India’s history. Two other AAP leaders, Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh, have already been arrested in the same case. The chief minister had been summoned nine times by the probe agency but refused to appear, calling the summons illegal.
The arrests mean that the key leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) are now in jail, following the arrests last year of two of Kejriwal’s deputies in the same case, which the party has labeled as “dirty politics.”
