The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to immediately entertain Aam Aadmi Party’s plea seeking to quash Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest by the Enforcement Directorate last evening. The top court said it will hear the plea tomorrow.
AAP had moved the Supreme Court for an urgent hearing on Thursday to quash Kejriwal’s arrest by the ED. The arrest came hours after the Delhi High Court refused to grant the CM protection from coercive action in the Delhi excise policy case earlier today.
Kejriwal was arrested by a team of ED officials who arrived at his Civil Lines residence for questioning in the case. Agency officials said the 55-year-old AAP national convenor would be produced before a court on Friday and the ED would seek his custody for interrogation in the case.
AAP workers gathered at the CM’s residence soon after the ED’s arrival making his arrest imminent. Protests continued at the CM’s residence and paramilitary forces were brought in. Security was beefed up since evening around the Chief Minister’s residence with the deployment of RAF and CRPF units along with Delhi Police personnel as ED officials reached there in connection with an excise policy-linked money laundering case.
AAP leader and Delhi minister Atishi said that they will end the protest for the night and resume it at the AAP office tomorrow. “We will continue our protest. We will carry forward Arvind Kejriwal’s struggle,” she said.
The ED moved court against Kejriwal after he skipped the agency’s summons on multiple occasions. The case against Kejriwal stems from the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy 2021-22. According to the ED, the excise policy was implemented as part of a conspiracy to give wholesale business profit of 12 percent to certain private companies.
The agency has further alleged a conspiracy coordinated by Vijay Nair and other individuals along with the ‘South Group’ to give extraordinary profit margins to wholesalers. ED claims that Nair was acting on behalf of CM Kejriwal and his former deputy Manish Sisodia.
Two complaints were filed by the ED against Kejriwal over non-compliance of its summons so far. The ED has issued nine summonses to him. Kejriwal did not appear before the agency for questioning even once.