Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Saurabh Bharadwaj on Thursday claimed that “preparations are on” to “arrest” Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal as the Enforcement Directorate (ED) continues searches at the CM's residence in Civil Lines. “The way police are inside the house of the CM and no one is allowed to enter, it seems the CM's house has been raided. It seems there is preparation to arrest the CM,” Saurabh Bharadwaj has said.
ED officials are conducting searches in AAP leader and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal's house after the Delhi High Court refused to grant him protection from coercive action in an excise policy-linked money laundering case.
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AAP leader Bharadwaj also claimed that the ED officials have taken away CM Kejriwal's phones. “Now, communication is not possible with Arvind Kejriwal, nor with his secretary, which seems that the agency has taken his phones...They (ED) might arrest him. BJP's atrocities are now exposed in front of this country,” said Saurabh Bharadwaj.
According to ED officials, the agency team went to Kejriwal's residence to serve him a summons. The team also informed the staff at the chief minister's residence that it had a search warrant, they said.
The case pertains to alleged corruption and money laundering in formulating and executing the Delhi government's excise policy for 2021-22, which was later scrapped.
Security has been beefed up outside CM Arvind Kejriwal's house. The Delhi Police has stepped up security and deployed additional personnel around Arvind Kejriwal's residence in Civil Lines.
Barricades were put up on the lane leading to his official residence in Civil Lines in north Delhi and additional police personnel were deployed there, officials said. According to reports, the Rapid Action Force (RAF) has also been deployed outside the CM's residence in the national capital.
Meanwhile, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal has moved the Supreme Court against the Delhi High Court’s order denying him protection from coercive action in the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy scam case.
Delhi Finance Minister and AAP leader Atishi Marlena, who is waiting outside the CM's house said, “People of Delhi love Kejriwal. The people of Delhi consider him as their son. That is why PM Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are afraid of him (CM Kejriwal).”
“PM Modi and the BJP are using the ED to target Kejriwal because they are afraid of him. Arvind Kejriwal is not an individual. Arvind Kejriwal is an idea. If you arrest one Kejriwal, hundreds will emerge to save constituencies,” Atishi added.
The AAP has reportedly asked the party cadre to start moving towards CM Arvind Kejriwal's house. Delhi Assembly speaker Ram Niwas Goel and Rajinder Nagar MLA Durgesh Pathak have also arrived outside CM Kejriwal's house.
Notably, if arrested, Kejriwal will be the second opposition CM to be taken into custody by the ED. Jharkhand's former chief minister and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leader Hemant Soren had been arrested by the ED earlier this year, in a case related to an illegal change of ownership of land in Jharkhand.
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