New Delhi, Jun 26, 2024, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
New Delhi, Jun 26: In more trouble for Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, the CBI formally arrested him on Wednesday and sought his five-day custody in a corruption case related to the alleged excise scam.
A special court later sent him to CBI custody for three days.
In his submission before the court, Kejriwal claimed innocence in the case and said his former deputy Manish Sisodia as well as the Aam Aadmi Party too are innocent.
The central agency formally arrested the AAP leader after getting permission from Special Judge Amitabh Rawat. It moved the application seeking Kejriwal's arrest after he was produced before the court from the Tihar Central Jail. The AAP leader is lodged in prison in an excise scam money laundering case being probed by the Enforcement Department.
Kejriwal told the court, "It is being shown in the media, citing CBI sources, that I have put the entire blame on Manish Sisodia in a statement. I have not given any statement that Sisodia is guilty or anyone else is guilty. I have said Sisodia is innocent, AAP is innocent, I am innocent."
Kejriwal also claimed that the CBI was sensationalising the issue. "It needs to be clarified. This will be the top headline in all the newspapers. They aim to sensationalise the matter," he said.
In the application seeking Kejriwal's custody, the CBI told the court that he was required to be quizzed to unearth the larger conspiracy in the matter. It also said that the Delhi chief minister was required to be confronted with evidence and other people accused in the case.
The court later sent Kejriwal to CBI custody for three days.
Soon after the CBI arrested Kejriwal, his wife Sunita alleged the whole system is trying to ensure that her husband does not come out of jail and said that this is akin to "dictatorship" and "emergency".
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) accused the BJP of getting Kejriwal arrested in a "fake case" by the CBI.
In a post on X in Hindi, Sunita said her husband got bail on June 20 in the excise policy-linked money laundering case but the Enforcement Directorate (ED) immediately got a stay. "The very next day, the CBI made him an accused. And today he was arrested. The whole system is trying to ensure that the man does not come out of jail. This is not law. This is dictatorship, this is emergency," she said.
The AAP also condemned Kejriwal's arrest.
"The dictator crossed all limits of cruelty!! Today when there was every possibility of Chief Minister @ArvindKejriwal getting bail, the BJP went into panic mode and got Kejriwal arrested by the 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, Kejriwal will neither bow down nor break," it said in a post on X in Hindi.
AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP are playing a "dirty game" and the people of the country know what is going on.
Meanwhile, the Delhi BJP said Chief Minister Kejriwal was bound to be arrested by the CBI in the excise policy case as the agency had presented incriminating documents against him in court.
The documents presented before the court in the excise policy "scam" established that Kejriwal was the "mastermind" behind it. The excise policy was formulated under his supervision and a "big scam" was committed, Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva said.
Kejriwal has been in prison since April 1 in connection with the excise policy-linked money laundering case being probed by the Enforcement Directorate. Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22 was withdrawn by the Kejriwal government in July 2022 after Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena recommended a CBI probe into alleged irregularities in its formulation and implementation.