ED arrests Arvind Kejriwal in excise policy case, AAP knocks on SC door

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday night in an excise policy-linked money laundering case, officials said.

The arrest, the first of a sitting chief minister, came hours after the Delhi High Court refused to grant protection to Kejriwal from any coercive action by the agency.

Soon after the high court order, an ED team reached his residence and carried out searches. Subsequently, he was arrested, officials said. They added that a six-member team of the federal probe agency, along with an escort of the Delhi Police, had reached Kejriwal's official residence on Flagstaff Road in the national capital.

The ED action against Kejriwal, coming amid campaigning for the Lok Sabha polls, drew strong reactions from his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

The agency may take him to its office in central Delhi for questioning, sources said, even though there was no official word on the agency's likely course of action.

The high court did not grant any protection to Kejriwal from the agency's action in the case, they said. As fresh developments unfolded through the day, Kejriwal moved the Supreme Court against the high court's order denying him any relief in the matter.

Immediately after the arrest, Delhi minister and senior AAP leader Atishi posted on X, "We have moved the Supreme Court for quashing the arrest of Delhi CM @ArvindKejriwal, by ED. We have asked for an urgent hearing by the Supreme Court tonight itself."

Kejriwal's arrest comes at a time when AAP is making a serious foray into electoral politics through a tie-up with Opposition INDIA bloc partner Congress for the Lok Sabha polls in Delhi, Haryana and Gujarat.

The 55-year-old AAP national convener's arrest could have serious repercussions on the electoral fortunes of the party since he has been at the centre of most of its plans and strategy for the Lok Sabha elections.

In his absence, the party stares at uncertainty as many of its other senior leaders are either in jail or in political obscurity. Kejriwal's trusted aides — Sanjay Singh and Manish Sisodia — are in prison in connection with the same excise policy case, while another trusted aide Satyendra Jain is also in jail in a separate alleged money laundering case.

Within a short span of 12 years, Kejriwal has single-handedly led AAP's rise to become the third largest national party in the country, following the BJP and Congress, with a footprint not only in Delhi and Punjab but also in faraway Gujarat and Goa.