In a massive development, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) late Thursday night arrested Delhi Chief Minister & AAP National Convenor Arvind Kejriwal in the alleged liquor policy case. ED raided Delhi CM Kejriwal's house on Thursday night and after two hours of questioning, the central agency took the Delhi CM into custody. Arvind Kejriwal's arrest created a nationwide uproar as the I.N.D.I.A block accused Prime Minister Modi-led Central government of misusing the central agencies to gain the upper hand in the upcoming Lok Sabha Elections 2024. The Lok Sabha Elections 2024 will kickstart in April 20, 2024. Arvind Kejriwal's arrest came hours after the Delhi High Court refused to grant him protection from arrest. Notably, Delhi CM Kejriwal skipped 9 summons from ED citing them as illegal. Now, the question arises why did the ED arrest Arvind Kejriwal just a few days after they took K Kavita into their custody? Below is everything you need to know-
The ED has arrested Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal in the now-scrapped liquor policy case. Delhi Minister Aatishi & other AAP leaders have maintained that there was no scam and the ED did not recover any cash in the alleged case. However, ED on the other hand has accused Delhi CM Kejriwal and its cabinet ministers including Manish Sisodia of hatching a liquor policy scam. ED intensified actions on Delhi CM Kejriwal after K Kavita's arrest.
For the unversed, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader K Kavitha is the daughter of former Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao (KCR). She was arrested from her Hyderabad home and brought to Delhi last Friday.
ED in its statement reportedly claimed, "K Kavitha, along with others, conspired with… Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia, for getting favours in Delhi excise policy formulation and implementation.In exchange for these favours, she was involved in paying Rs 100 crore to the leaders."
The Central agency further claimed, "By acts of corruption and conspiracy… a continuous stream of illegal funds in the form of kickbacks from the wholesalers was generated for AAP. Further, and her associates were to recover the proceeds of crime paid in advance to AAP and to further generate profits/proceeds of crime from this entire conspiracy."
However, the Aam Aadmi Party denied the allegation of ED reportedly saying, "On earlier occasions too, ED had released such blatantly false and frivolous statements which show that instead of being a neutral investigative agency, it is working like a political wing of BJP."
As per ED, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal's name had appeared in the statements of some accused and witnesses. The ED has mentioned this in its remand note and chargesheets. As per reports, Vijay Nair, one of the accused in the liquor policy case, frequently visitedArvind Kejriwal's office, and would spend most of his time there. The ED further stated that Vijay Nair allegedly told liquor traders that he discussed the policy with Delhi CM Kejriwal. ED allege that it was Nair, who got Indospirit owner Sameer Mahendru to meet Delhi CM Kejriwal.