Arvind Kejriwal arrest: 1st Delhi assembly session without CM’s presence to be held today.
For the first time, the Delhi assembly session will be held on Wednesday without Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Earlier, the session was scheduled for Friday but after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested CM Kejrwal, the session got postponed.
CM Kejriwal has been in ED’s custody since 21 March in a case linked to now scrapped excise policy. Meanwhile, the Delhi High Court will be hearing a petition by Kejriwal challenging his arrest by the ED on Wednesday.
The bench of Justice Swarna Kanta Sharma will hear the matter today at the at the top of the board and state the cause list of the Delhi High Court. According to the legal team of Kejriwal, both the arrest and the remand order are illegal and he is entitled to be released from custody. On 22 March, trial court sent Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo to ED remand till March 28. ED alleged that CM Kejriwal is the major beneficiary of the proceeds of crime generated in the alleged liquor scam.
Kejriwal’s name has been mentioned multiple times in the charge sheets filed by the ED. The agency has alleged that the accused were in touch with Kejriwal for formulating the excise policy that resulted in undue benefits to them in return for which they paid kickbacks to the AAP.
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 found a mention in the ED’s chargesheet, wherein 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.
Nair was among the first people to be arrested by the CBI in the case, in 2022. Subsequently, former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh were arrested in connection with the case.