New Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal arrested in liquor policy scam

NEW DELHI: Just weeks ahead of the Indian national polls, New Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was on Thursday arrested in an alleged liquor policy scam.

Kejriwal has become the first sitting chief minister to be arrested in the history of India, according to NDTV.

A 12-member team of the country’s Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Delhi CM Kejriwal at his residence in North Delhi’s Civil Lines Thursday evening.

The ED team reached his residence and began questioning after the Delhi High Court refused to grant the CM protection from coercive action in the excise policy case earlier Thursday, according to Indian Express.

The arrest means the main leaders of the decade-old Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) are in jail, following the arrests last year of two of Kejriwal’s deputies in the same case -- which the party has called “dirty politics”.

The financial crime agency, the Enforcement Directorate, is investigating allegations that a liquor policy implemented by the Delhi government in 2022, which ended its control over sale of liquor in the capital, gave undue advantages to private retailers. The policy was subsequently withdrawn. Atishi, an AAP lawmaker from Delhi, said on social media that the party was seeking to quash the latest arrest. “We have asked for an urgent hearing by the Supreme Court tonight itself,” she said.