New Delhi. Senior Aam Aadmi Party leader Saurabh Bhardwaj said on Thursday night that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) did not find any evidence during the search of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s residence. All that the ED found was Rs 70,000, which it returned. When Kejriwal was arrested by ED from his residence in Civil Lines, Bhardwaj was also present there.
Took away Kejriwal’s phone before arresting him
Delhi Minister Bhardwaj said that the agency did not find any evidence, property documents, illegal money, evidence of money transactions etc. during its raid. He claimed that the ED searched the Chief Minister’s residence and took his phone before arresting him.
‘The fight has started from today’
Delhi Minister Gopal Rai said that Kejriwal’s arrest is ‘murder of democracy’ and ‘declaration of dictatorship’. If Kejriwal can be arrested then anyone can be arrested and their voice can be suppressed. The fight has started from today. Arvind Kejriwal is not a person but an ideology.
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He was arrested hours after the Delhi High Court refused to grant relief to the AAP national coordinator from any coercive action by the agency. This is the first case of arrest of a Chief Minister while in office.
‘Kejriwal will remain the Chief Minister of Delhi’
Amid the campaigning for the Lok Sabha elections, AAP has reacted sharply to Kejriwal’s arrest. AAP said, “Kejriwal will remain the Chief Minister of Delhi. If necessary, he will run the government from jail.” However, the BJP has demanded his resignation from the post of Chief Minister on moral grounds.
Some seizures were also made during the raid
Officials said that in the day’s rapidly changing developments, a 10-member team of the agency led by an additional director of ED reached his official residence in Civil Lines here and conducted a search. He was arrested more than two hours after the ED team reached the Chief Minister’s residence.
Sources said that ED interrogated Kejriwal for some time before arresting him. He said that some seizures were also made during the raid. This is the 16th arrest in this case by the ED.
read this also: From Delhi CM Kejriwal, anti-corruption activist to arrest in excise ‘scam’
ED will request to give Kejriwal custody
Officials said the ED will produce the Chief Minister in a court here on Friday and request his custody for questioning.
Let us tell you that ED has so far filed six chargesheets in this case and has attached assets worth Rs 128 crore.
Kejriwal had avoided nine summons issued by the agency for questioning in the case. Of these, a new summons was issued on Thursday 21 March. He has termed these summons as ‘illegal’.
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Tags: Arvind kejriwal, Delhi CM, Delhi liquor scam
FIRST PUBLISHED: March 22, 2024, 01:50 IST