- A 12-member ED team arrests Delhi CM Kejriwal from his residence.
- The arrest took place after the Delhi HC refused to grant protection to CM.
- The AAP seeks an urgent hearing before the Supreme Court of India.
Just weeks before the Indian national elections, New Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was arrested on Thursday over the alleged liquor policy scam.
Kejriwal has become the first serving chief minister to be arrested in Indian history, according to NDTV.
A 12-member team of the country's Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Delhi CM Kejriwal from his residence in north Delhi's Civil Lines this afternoon.
The ED team reached his residence and started questioning him after the Delhi High Court today refused to grant the CM protection from coercive action in the excise policy case, according to Indian Express.
The arrest means that top leaders of the decade-old Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) are in jail, following the arrest last year of two of Kejriwal's MPs in the same case, which the party has called ” dirty politics.”
The financial crimes agency, the Enforcement Directorate, is investigating allegations that a liquor policy implemented by the Delhi government in 2022, which ended its control over the sale of liquor in the capital, gave undue advantages to private retailers. The policy was later withdrawn.
Atishi, an AAP legislator from Delhi, said on social media that the party was seeking to quash the latest arrest.
“We have requested an urgent hearing before the Supreme Court tonight,” he said.
