AAP workers protesting against Kejriwal’s arrest detained by police

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) workers protesting the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal by the Enforcement Directorate were detained by the police. The AAP workers were demonstrating and distributing leaflets against Kejriwal’s arrest at the ITO Delhi metro station.

“We were keeping our point only and they (the police) are detaining us,” said one of the AAP workers. The party workers have been protesting in Delhi since Kejriwal’s arrest.

Kejriwal is scheduled to appear before the court on Thursday at the end of his ED custody in the Delhi excise policy money laundering case. He was arrested on March 21 in connection with the alleged money laundering case related to the Delhi excise policy.

The AAP cadre is expected to escalate its protests in the national capital. The INDIA bloc will also hold a joint rally at the Ram Leela Maidan on March 31 in protest against the arrest.

The case pertains to alleged irregularities and money laundering in the formulation and execution of the Delhi excise policy in 2022. The initial prosecution complaint filed by the ED in November 2021 stated that the policy was intentionally designed with loopholes, facilitating the formation of cartels clandestinely to favor AAP leaders.

The ED also accused AAP leaders of receiving kickbacks from a group of individuals referred to as the “South Group.” The case originated from a report presented by Delhi Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar to Lieutenant Governor (LG) Vinai Kumar Saxena in July 2022, highlighting purported procedural deficiencies in the development of the policy.

The report alleged that “arbitrary and unilateral decisions” taken by Sisodia as Excise Minister had resulted in “financial losses to the exchequer” estimated at more than Rs 580 crore. This report was referred to the CBI, leading to Sisodia’s arrest.

While Kejriwal was not named in the FIRs registered by the ED or the Central Bureau of Investigation in the Delhi excise policy case, his name first appeared in the ED’s chargesheet, where the agency claimed that he allegedly spoke to one of the main accused, Sameer Mahendru, in a video call and asked him to continue working with co-accused and AAP communications-in-charge Vijay Nair.