He was arrested under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. He will be produced on Friday before a local court where ED will seek his custodial interrogation.
Kejriwal late Thursday night moved the Supreme Court challenging his arrest. The court will take up the matter on Friday.
Kejriwal is likely to be confronted with Bharat Rashtra Samithi leader Kavitha Kalvakuntla who is also in ED custody. Her custodial interrogation expires on Saturday. ED had earlier arrested Aam Aadmi Party leaders Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh in the same case.
ED insiders said that more arrests were likely in the case. ED had alleged in a news release earlier this week that Kavitha ‘conspired’ with the AAP leadership, including Kejriwal and Sisodia, for ‘receiving favours’ from the Delhi liquor policy and in lieu ‘paid Rs 100 crore’ to AAP leaders. “By acts of corruption and conspiracy in the formulation and implementation of Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22, a continuous stream of illegal funds in the form of kickback, from the wholesalers was generated for AAP,” ED has alleged. Kavitha and her associates were to recover the ‘proceeds of crime paid in advance to AAP’ and generate ‘further profits’ from the deal, ED has alleged.
Earlier in the day, the Delhi high court refused to grant interim protection from arrest to Kejriwal, following which a team of ED sleuths reached his official residence and carried out searches. Kejriwal was summoned by the agency for questioning at its office but he moved the HC seeking protection from arrest. A division bench comprising justices Suresh Kumar Kait and Manoj Jain observed that it was not inclined to grant any such protection at this stage. During the hearing, counsel for ED told the HC that Kejriwal has not been summoned in his official capacity as chief minister or AAP’s national convenor personal capacity. ED had issued summons to Kejriwal nine times but he had refused to join the investigation, calling the summons ‘illegal.’Kejriwal last week had appeared in person before additional chief metropolitan magistrate Divya Malhotra who had summoned him in connection with a complaint filed by ED on account of non-compliance of its summons. He was then granted bail in relation to the court’s warrant.
