Delhi Chief Minister and prominent opposition leader Arvind Kejriwal has been arrested by India’s financial crime agency in connection with corruption allegations related to the city’s liquor policy, his party has said.
Atishi Singh, Delhi’s finance minister, rejected the allegations and said that the AAP was seeking to quash the latest arrest.
“We have asked for an urgent hearing by the Supreme Court tonight itself,” she said.
Kejriwal will continue to be Delhi’s chief minister while the party fights the accusations, Singh said.
She described his arrest as a “political conspiracy” orchestrated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The financial crime agency, the Enforcement Directorate (ED), is investigating allegations that a liquor policy implemented by the Delhi government in 2022, which ended its control over the sale of liquor in the capital, gave undue advantages to private retailers.
Kejriwal’s administration’s controversial policy ended a government monopoly on the sale of liquor.
The policy has since been withdrawn.
The AAP has said no evidence of wrongdoing has emerged in the investigation and Kejriwal has previously said that if he is corrupt, “then there is no one in this world who is honest”.
The ED had issued nine summons to Kejriwal for questioning but he did not answer them, saying that he feared he would be arrested.
He also sought protection from arrest from court, saying his party would be weakened in elections if that were to happen.
