The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
Will move SC: AAP after HC rejects CM plea against arrest
AFTER THE dismissal of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s petition challenging his arrest, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is now pinning its hopes on the Supreme Court, hoping for a favourable decision, “just like in the case of Sanjay Singh”, it said.
Singh, a Rajya Sabha member and a senior AAP leader, was granted bail by the apex court last week. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) did not oppose his bail application after its counsel was reminded by the court that the “money has not been recovered”.
The dismissal, however, does not come as a surprise to AAP, which said it was looking to the Supreme Court for “justice”.
“Werespectthecourtbut we disagree with the decision on the petition. We will now knock on the door of the Supreme Court, and we are hopeful that just as Sanjay Singh got justice, CM Arvind Kejriwal will also get justice only through the apex court,” said senior AAP leader Jasmine Shah.
The court’s decision, meanwhile, has also resulted in a louder chorus from the Bharatiya Janata Party, demanding that Kejriwal resign as the Chief Minister.
Demanding the CM’S resignation, Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri said he should own moral responsibility. “…The Court has been unsparing which has upheld his arrest and remand… His continuation as CM behind bars is an exercise in shamelessness. It is high time he puts in his papers and lets someone else govern Delhi,” he said.
AAP, which has maintained that there is no law that does not allow Kejriwal to continue to hold the post while he is jailed, said that despite the long investigation and over 250 raids, not a penny has been recovered “in the so-called scam”.
“This is the first case in Indian history where an investigation has been ongoing for almost two years, where more than 250 raids have been conducted, and over 500 witnesses summoned. Despite all these efforts, not even a penny has been recovered. However, leaders of a national party are being systematically put in jail one by one,” Shah said.
Former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and party communications incharge Vijay Nair have been arrested in the case. The ED also questioned AAP MLA Durgesh Pathak on Monday.
AAP also said that several witnesses have either been coerced or lured with pardons to make false statements against AAP and its leaders.
“Many witnesses have said on record in court that they were pressured to say what ED wanted in the statements. Some of these witnesses have since gone back on their recorded statements, alleging coercion… we respect the decision taken by the High Court. The court is an institution. We want to respectfully say that we do not agree with this decision,” said AAP Delhi minister Saurabh Bharadwaj.
Over the past few weeks, since Kejriwal was arrested, BJP and its leaders have raised issues of a “Constitutional crisis” in the city, stating that a government cannot be run from jail.
Senior BJP leaders, on condition of anonymity, have said that a cabinet meeting cannot be held in the absence of the Chief Minister, and the Lt Governor usually communicates only with a Chief Minister and not the ministers.
This has been borne out by the letters written by L-G VK Saxena over the past weeks, wherein he said that he was writing to ministers directly because of the “peculiar” circumstances surrounding Kejriwal. On Monday, he wrote to the Union Home Secretary, alleging that Delhi ministers are skirting meetings called by him.
Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdeva, meanwhile, said that Kejriwal had lost the moral right to continue as Chief Minister.
“The Delhi High Court slammed the Chief Minister for expecting dual standards of treatment of an accused. The court has clearly told him not to expect any special treatment,” Sachdeva said.