Panaji (Goa) [India], March 23 (ANI): The Goa Congress on Friday strongly condemned the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the alleged excise policy scam and said that this is the "murder of democracy."
Goa Leader of Opposition and Congress legislator Yuri Alemao questioned the timing of arrest of Delhi CM and said that Bharatiya Janata Party and its allied partners NDA, ED, CBI and IT, are all working together to "silence" the voice of opposition
"The timing of the arrest is questionable and it shows that the dictatorial attitude of the Bharatiya Janata Party and its allied partners, the NDA, ED, CBI and IT, are all working together to basically silence the voice of opposition. BJP is rattled by the way INDIA alliance is shaping up in the country. We condemn this and as alliance partners, we stand in solidarity with Arvind Kerjiwal," Alemao said.
He further said that the people of the country are watching it and they will give a befitting reply in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Congress MLA Carlos Alvares Ferreira termed the Delhi CM's arrest a "black day and an assault on India's democracy.".
"I think this is the murder of democracy. What we see unfolding here is unfortunate. It is important to note that, if you look at the timing, elections are at the doorstep and the election schedule is being announced. The electoral bond matching was out in the public domain and would have been in the headlines today but the BJP had an art to confuse and distract and this is the technique they use. Now that the SBI has released, they (BJP) want to hide that and make headlines about the arrest of Delhi CM. I condemn this strongly and I think INDIA alliance parterns will show there place in the upcoming lok sabha elections," he added.
Goa Congress president Amit Patkar also condemned the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister and said that the BJP can't stop the INDIA bloc with their tactics.
"You see the chronology of the events that have been happening for almost 1 month. First, they arrested Jharkhand CM, and now they have arrested Delhi CM. This proves that the BJP is losing the Lok Sabha elections, which is why they are taking these kinds of actions. We condemn the arrest of the Delhi Chief Minister and this is purely a political vendetta. If you see the timing, I think it is not a good sign for a healthy democracy," he said.
Arvind Kejriwal was on Friday remanded to the custody of the Enforcement Directorate for seven days, i.e., till March 28, a day after he was arrested by the probe agency in connection with the Delhi Excise Policy case linked to a money laundering case.
Special CBI judge Kaveri Baweja of the Rouse Avenue Court passed the order after Kejriwal was produced on Friday following his arrest on Thursday night by the central probe agency.
Senior Advocates Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Vikram Chaudhari, and Ramesh Gupta along with Advocates Rajat Bharadwaj, Mudit Jain and Mohd Irshad, appeared for the Delhi CM Kejriwal.
ASG SV Raju and Special Counsel Zoheb Hossain appeared for the probe agency.
The case pertains to alleged irregularities and money laundering in framing and implementing the Delhi excise policy case 2022, which was later scrapped.
Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal was on Friday remanded to the custody of the Enforcement Directorate for seven days i.e., till March 28, a day after he was arrested by the probe agency in connection with the Delhi Excise Policy case linked to a money laundering case.
In its arguments before the court, the ED alleged that the CM of Delhi is the key conspirator and kingpin in demanding kickbacks from businessmen. The agency further claimed that Kejriwal was directly involved in the formation of the Excise policy.The ED counsel claimed that Vijay Nair, who was the media in charge of AAP, was working for Delhi CM Kejriwal.
Nair, who the agency said lives adjacent to the residence of Kejriwal, acted as a middleman between the AAP and the South group.The ED counsel further claimed that the proceeds of crime are not only Rs 100 crore but profits made by bribe givers were also proceeds of crime. The counsel said that the agency had traced Hawala trails of Rs 45 crore that the agency says was used in the Goa Election.
The arrest by the central agency has drawn severe criticism for the BJP-led centre from the opposition leaders.
The AAP will "gherao" the prime minister's residence on March 26 to register its protest against Kejriwal's arrest by the ED, the party's leader Gopal Rai said on Friday.
The case pertains to alleged irregularities and money laundering in framing and implementing the Delhi excise policy case 2022, which was later scrapped.
Two senior AAP leaders, Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh, are in judicial custody in the excise policy case. Sisodia, who was the then Delhi Deputy Chief Minister, was arrested by the CBI on February 26 following several rounds of questioning. On October 5, ED arrested Sanjay Singh, who is a Rajya Sabha member.`
Kejriwal's arrest came days after the ED arrested Bharat Rashta Samithi (BRS) leader and daughter of former Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao K Kavitha, in connection with its investigation into money laundering charges linked to the now-scrapped excise policy. Kavitha is in ED custody till March 23. (ANI)
