Arvind Kejriwal withdraws plea from SC, will approach lower court challenging arrest by ED
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has withdrawn his plea from Supreme Court, a day after he was arrested in the Delhi Excise Policy case.
Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi appearing for Kejriwal told the SC that Kejriwal was withdrawing the petition in the Supreme Court as it is clashing with the remand.
Kejriwal was arrested by the ED on Thursday evening, and was taken to the agency's headquarters in New Delhi.
This is the first time that a sitting chief minister has been arrested, hours after the Delhi High Court refused to grant protection to the AAP national convenor from any coercive action by the agency.
The party said Kejriwal «will continue as the chief minister of Delhi. If need be, he will run the government from jail. The BJP has sought a resignation from Kejriwal on moral grounds.
Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest in Excise Policy Case
So far, the ED has filed six chargesheets in this case. Assets worth over Rs 128 crore have also been attached.
Central investigative agencies including the ED and the CBI have claimed that the Delhi government's excise policy granted licences to liquor traders which made way for cartelisation. ED also alleged that the policy favoured certain dealers who had allegedly paid bribes for it.
AAP has strongly rebuked all these allegations.
Eventually, the policy was scrapped. Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena later on suggested a CBI probe into the irregularities in its formulation and implementation.
Kejriwal ignored nine summonses from the agency for questioning,
