The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in connection with a money laundering case on March 21. Kejriwal was apprehended from his official residence following the Delhi High Court’s decision to refuse interim relief in the excise policy case.
Notably, ED reached the residence of Kejriwal and after searches and his questioning, he was arrested in connection with the Delhi liquor policy case. The move came hours after Delhi High Court refused to protect the AAP leader from arrest. Earlier, ED issued 9 summonses to Delhi CM.
The arrest came hours after the Delhi High Court declined to entertain Kejriwal’s application for “no coercive steps” against him by the ED. The court, while hearing Kejriwal’s writ petition challenging the summons issued to him in the excise policy case, stated, “At this stage, we are not inclined to pass such an order.”
The application for interim relief was filed by Kejriwal seeking protection from coercive action by the ED and questioning the validity of certain provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). However, the court’s decision not to grant interim relief led to Kejriwal’s arrest by the ED.
The excise policy case and the subsequent ED investigation have put Kejriwal in the spotlight, with the ED probing allegations of money laundering against him. The arrest marks a significant development in the ongoing legal battle surrounding Kejriwal and the excise policy case.
As the case progresses, stakeholders await further developments and responses from both the ED and Kejriwal’s legal team regarding the next steps in the legal proceedings.
According to the ED, Kejriwal’s role in the case was on issues like the formulation of policy, meetings held before it was finalised, and allegations of bribery. In its sixth charge sheet filed in the case on December 2, 2023, naming AAP leader Sanjay Singh and his aide Sarvesh Mishra, the ED claimed that the AAP used kickbacks worth Rs 45 crore generated via the policy as part of its assembly elections campaign in Goa in 2022.
The now-scrapped excise policy was aimed “at revitalising the city’s flagging liquor business” and replacing a sales-volume-brd regime with a licence fee for traders. Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena had ordered a probe into alleged irregularities in the policy. AAP has accused Saxena’s predecessor, Anil Baijal, of sabotaging the move with a few last-minute changes that resulted in lower-than-expected revenues.
Two senior AAP leaders, Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh, are in judicial custody in the case. Sisodia, who was the then Delhi Deputy Chief Minister, was arrested by the CBI on February 26 following several rounds of questioning. On October 5, ED arrested Sanjay Singh, who is a Rajya Sabha member.
