New Delhi: The Aam Adami Party (AAP) workers protesting against the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister and party national convenor Arvind Kejriwal by the Enforcement Directorate were detained by the police.
The AAP workers were protesting and distributing leaflets against the ED arrest of the Delhi CM at the ITO Delhi metro station.
"We were keeping our point only and they (the police) are detaining us," one of the AAP workers said. The party workers have been hitting Delhi's streets since Kejriwal was arrested in the alleged scam.
Meanwhile, Kejriwal will be produced before the court on Thursday at the end of his ED custody in Delhi excise policy money laundering case.
The probe agency had arrested Kejriwal on March 21 in connection with an alleged excise policy-linked money laundering case.
Meanwhile, the AAP cadre is expected to intensify 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 relates to alleged irregularities and money laundering in the formulation and execution of the Delhi excise policy in 2022.
In its initial prosecution complaint filed in November 2021, the ED stated that the policy was intentionally designed with loopholes, facilitating the formation of cartels clandestinely to favor AAP leaders.
Additionally, the ED 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 said "arbitrary and unilateral decisions" taken by Sisodia in his capacity 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, and led 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 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.
