A court granted seven-day remand to Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal on Friday. He was arrested in a corruption case on Thursday night.
On Friday (March 22), the Enforcement Directorate (ED) applied to the Rouse Avenue court to take the Delhi Chief Minister into its custody for 10 days. After hearing the plea, the judge remanded him in custody till March 28 and allowed him to be interrogated.
The ED told the court that the Chief Minister of Delhi has been arrested in accordance with the specific provisions of the law. Opposing the AAP chief's bail, the ED also said that Kejriwal was directly involved in the crime. It is claimed that the excise policy was formulated to take bribe from some traders.
The ED is probing allegations that Kejriwal and some ministers and leaders took bribes from liquor dealers to change the licensing policy for liquor shops in Delhi. ED raided Kejriwal's residence on Thursday (March 21) evening to inquire about the search warrant in this case and hours later arrested him.
Kejriwal is the first Chief Minister in India's history to be arrested on corruption charges while in office. Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren was also arrested by ED just two months ago. However, unlike Kejriwal, he was not arrested during his tenure as Chief Minister.
Meanwhile, the arrest of the Chief Minister of Delhi has raised the question of how the administration of Delhi will be managed. However, the AAP party has made it clear that Arvind Kejriwal will remain the Chief Minister of Delhi despite his arrest.
Even if there is no legal bar to the AAP leader running the state from prison, it would be very difficult for Kejriwal to carry out the duties of Chief Minister as per the prison rules.
Sunil Gupta, a former law officer at Delhi's Tihar Jail, said a prisoner can have only two meetings in a week. So it will be difficult for Kejriwal to perform as Chief Minister.
He said, it is not easy to run the government from prison. Jail guidelines state that you can only visit your family, friends or associates twice a week. So under these restrictions, it will not be easy for him (Kejriwal) to continue governing.
