Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal Remanded To Custody For 7 Days, till March 28 In Corruption Case! The arrest has come after the alleged corruption case over excise policy-linked money laundering case.
Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, was arrested on charges of corruption, and a judge ruled that he be kept under remand.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader, Mr. Kejriwal, was taken into custody by India’s financial crimes agency on Thursday.
Opposition leaders claim his arrest was made for political reasons, while he has denied any wrongdoing.
The accusation has been rejected by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party claims that the government is combating corruption.
On Friday afternoon, Mr. Kejriwal appeared in a Delhi trial court.
His attorney, Shadan Farasat, told news agency AFP following his apprehension, “We are considering our next course of action.”
Weeks before the general elections, several AAP officials were arrested in the nation’s capital, and infrequent demonstrations against Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal detention broke out all over India.
Leaders of the AAP have said that they will carry on with their demonstrations, including one outside the prime minister’s house.
AAP leader and Delhi Finance Minister Atishi, who goes by one name, claimed that Kejriwal had been detained in order to prevent him from running for office in the general elections.
In a statement, she continued, “This is a way to steal elections.”
What AAP’s Alliances Have To Say?
The opposition faces a blow by Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal’s detention by a financial crimes agency, which occurs only weeks before India’s general elections. The 27-party INDIA alliance, of which the AAP is a member, seeks to overthrow the BJP.
Rahul Gandhi of the main opposition Congress party tweeted on X, formerly Twitter, referring to Mr. Modi, saying, “A scared dictator wants to create a dead democracy.”
“The arrest of elected chief ministers has become a common thing,” Gandhi stated in a letter.
The Nationalist Congress Party’s (Sharadchandra Pawar) leader, Sharad Pawar, stated that Mr. Kejriwal’s arrest demonstrates the “depth to which BJP will stoop for power.”
Chief Minister of the Samajwadi Party Akhilesh Yadav declared that Mr. Kejriwal’s detention would “give birth to a new people’s revolution”.
“BJP knows that it will not come to power again, due to this fear, it wants to remove the opposition leaders from the public by any means at the time of elections, arrest is just an excuse,” he wrote in a post on X.
The chief minister of Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan, described Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal arrest as “outright vicious and part of a callous plot to silence all opposition voices just ahead of the general elections”.
According to M K Stalin, his equivalent in Tamil Nadu, “not a single BJP leader faces scrutiny or arrest, laying bare their abuse of power and the decay of democracy.”
“The BJP government’s unrelenting persecution of opposition leaders reminds me of a desperate witch hunt.” The BJP’s true colors are shown by this oppression, which incites public wrath,” Mr. Stalin stated.
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Other Arrests That Are Being Linked To Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal Arrest!
During the last year or two, a number of opposition figures have been detained, interrogated, or faced legal action brought by federal agencies.
Only a few days ago, K Kavitha, the leader of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), was taken into custody in connection with Mr. Kejriwal’s case. She rejects the accusations.
A federal tax agency detained Hemant Soren, the head of the opposition Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and a former chief minister of Jharkhand, in January on suspicion of money laundering and land grabbing. Mr. Soren disputes the claims.
The previous year, Mr. Gandhi was found guilty of criminal libel following a complaint from a BJP member.
He was temporarily barred from the parliament due to his two-year prison sentence, but in August of last year, a higher court overturned the decision.
The Congress party charged on Thursday that the government of Mr. Modi was depriving them of funds in advance of the polls by utilizing the tax department.
With regard to the now-cancelled liquor program in Delhi, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal is the third AAP leader to be taken into custody in connection with an alleged corruption case.
In the same case last year, the AAP member Sanjay Singh and Mr. Kejriwal’s deputy, Manish Sisodia, were both taken into custody by the Enforcement Directorate.
AAP has been in power in Delhi since 2013. In 2022, the party won big in the state elections of Punjab and picked up a few seats in Gujarat, the home state of Mr. Modi.
With inputs from BBC News.
