Arvind Kejriwal, the Chief Minister of Delhi, was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) last week. In her Twitter account on the same date, his wife Sunita alleged that the entire system is conspiring to keep her husband in jail and likened it to ‘dictatorship’ and “emergency”.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) condemned this act as a part of BJP’s conspiracy to arrest Mr. Kejriwal in a “fake case” arranged by CBI.
Follow highlights from Arvind Kejriwal’s bail plea hearing on 26th June 2024
Today, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) formally arrested Mr. Kejriwal in the Delhi Excise policy case and sought five-day custody from the AAP national convener.
Mrs. Kejriwal had posted on Facebook that while her husband received bail for money laundering case related to Excise policy. On June 20, immediately after that enforcement directorate went for an appeal against him.
“The very next day, he was made an accused by CBI. And today he was taken into custody. The institutions are designed not to allow anyone get released from prison. This is not law! It is dictatorship; it is emergency!” she said.
The AAP also described Mr. Kejriwal’s arrest as being reprehensible.
“Today when there were chances of Chief Minister @arvindkejriwal getting bail. But BJP did not want it so they got him arrested through CBI in a fake case.
“The CBI took Kejriwal ji to Rouse Avenue Court where his blood sugar level dropped very low. Dictator, no matter how much oppression you inflict on him he will neither bow nor break,” said a Facebook post written by someone working for X magazine in Hindi.
Sanjay Singh, an MP representing AAP Rajya Sabha, said there could be no bigger emergency than this.
“Magunta Reddy, the person who was responsible for CBI’s arrest of Kejriwal had earlier in his statement mentioned that he has nothing to do with him. His statement was recorded in January 2015 and CBI comes into action to arrest Kejriwal in June.
“The arrest is made after trial court granted bail and it needed to get Supreme Court’s stamp on approval. Then they remember to arrest Kejriwal,” outside Rouse Avenue court, he told reporters.
“The matter is pending before the Supreme Court yet the CBI goes ahead and arrests him in a false case. There cannot be a bigger emergency than this,” he added.
According to AAP MP, Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with BJP are playing a “dirty game” which every citizen of India knows about.
“Kejriwal is not a terrorist or criminal but a chief minister. Four charge sheets were filed by CBI without mentioning Kejriwal. They remember him when? When he is going to be released. We all know what is happening,” Mr Singh said.
“I want to tell the prime minister and BJP that you have imposed an emergency, shoot us publicly because entire country is seeing your dirty game,” he stated.
Mr Singh added that some news channels were saying that Mr Kejriwal blamed his ex-deputy Manish Sisodia for everything.
“In our reply as well as during arguments our lawyers and Arvindji did oppose it. The judge went through Arvind’s statement and accepted that it contained nothing like this,” he concluded.
Jasmine Shah, a senior AAP leader, claimed in a press conference that there are plans to spoil the name of his party.
SHAH: Right from the beginning we have been saying this, you see. These sensationalism and first page defamation is solely due to ED and CBI. It is meant for defaming the image of AAP, Kejriwal, and other leaders.”
He added: “We are waiting for whatever order comes from Delhi court regarding CBI plea seeking Mr. Kejriwal’s custody, but the whole case is fake.”
Mr Kejriwal has been in jail since April 1 on charges related to money laundering linked with excise policy of the state being probed by ED.
The Supreme Court had granted him interim bail on May 10 for 21 days to campaign for Lok Sabha elections. He returned jail on June 2.
After being recommended by Lieutenant Governor V.K Saxena for a CBI probe into alleged irregularities in its formulation and implementation. Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22 was withdrawn by Kejriwal government in July 2022.
