Kejriwal moves Delhi HC challenging arrest, remand
New Delhi, India - Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, on Saturday, moved the Delhi High Court, challenging his arrest and the order of remand passed by the trial court on Friday.
This comes a day after the Rouse Avenue Court sent Kejriwal to ED custody till March 28.
CM Kejriwal’s legal team said that his plea in Delhi HC stated that both the arrest and the remand order are ‘illegal’ and he is entitled to be released from custody immediately.
An immediate hearing has been sought from the acting chief justice, preferably by Sunday, March 24.
The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) arrested Kejriwal on Thursday in connection with the alleged Delhi excise policy case.
The AAP Chief was produced before Rouse Avenue Court under tight security on Friday.
While entering the court complex, Kejriwal told reporters: “My life is dedicated to the country, whether I am inside or outside the prison.”
The ED arrested Kejriwal after the Delhi High Court refused him interim protection from coercive action in connection with the excise policy case.
The case pertains to alleged irregularities and money laundering in framing and implementing the Delhi excise policy case 2022, which was later
Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal’s legal team said that his plea in Delhi HC stated that both the arrest and the remand order are ‘illegal’ and he is entitled to be released from custody immediately
scrapped.
Amid continuing protests against the arrest of Kejriwal, AAP leader and minister Saurabh Bhardwaj on Saturday said all party MLAS and the councillors arrived at a consensus following consultations that the former will continue to hold the reins of the national capital despite being in ED custody.
Speaking to ANI on Saturday, Bhardwaj, who was detained along with fellow minister Atishi while leading an AAP protest in the national capital against Kejriwal’s arrest on Friday, said: “Arvind Kejriwal will do whatever people want. He has always made his decisions in public interest and considering the greater good. Before making
this decision (to run the affairs of Delhi from ED custody, he got in touch with all his MLAS, held meetings, and met the councillors. We also spoke with people in all wards. Everyone said Arvind Kejriwal should continue as the CM, as there is no rule that stops him from running the government from jail (ED custody).”
On the ongoing raids by ED at the premises of sitting MLA Gulab Singh Yadav, Bhardwaj claims the action was merely aimed at scaring the Opposition into silence.
Accusing the Bjp-led Centre of putting the entire Opposition behind bars, the AAP leader
said: “People not just in the country but across the world are seeing how the Bjp-led government at the Centre is busy putting the entire Opposition in jail. This country is following in the path of Russia (referring to alleged suppression of Opposition leaders in the country). Such occurrences are also commonplace in Bangladesh, Pakistan, and North Korea. Now, India is following in the same path. The largest democracy in the world is now drifting towards dictatorship, where the basic rights of people are denied and the Opposition is muzzled and suppressed.”