AAP’s Raghav Chadha talks to reporters while being taken away in a police van
New Delhi:
Several Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders including MPs Raghav Chadha and Sanjay Singh were detained by the Delhi Police for protesting near the CBI office in Delhi, where Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is being questioned in the liquor policy case.
The AAP also held an emergency meeting of party leaders this evening amid concerns the CBI may arrest Mr Kejriwal. His ex deputy Manish Sisodia, who also held the excise portfolio, was arrested in the same case last month.
While being taken away in a police bus, Mr Chadha told reporters that the situation was like being under a dictatorship.
“Delhi Police has arrested us for sitting peacefully and is taking us to some unknown place… what kind of dictatorship is this?” Mr Chadha also said in a tweet later.
दिल्ली पुलिस ने हमें शांतिपूर्वक ढंग से बैठने के जुर्म में गिरफ्तार कर लिया है और किसी अनजान जगह पर लेके जा रही है… ये कैसी तानाशाही है ? pic.twitter.com/3yDvdAVOXT
— Raghav Chadha (@raghav_chadha) April 16, 2023
The detained leaders included Delhi ministers Saurabh Bharadwaj, Atishi and Kailash Gahlot, AAP spokesperson Adil Ahmad Khan, AAP general secretary Pankaj Gupta and some ministers in the Punjab government, which is run by the AAP.
At the emergency meeting, AAP’s Delhi chief Gopal Rai discuss what steps to be taken in case Mr Kejriwal is arrested. Mayor Shelly Oberoi, Deputy Mayor Aaley Mohammad Iqbal, AAP national secretary Pankaj Gupta and party leader Jasmine Shah attended this meeting.
The CBI summoned Mr Kejriwal to its office near central Delhi’s Lodhi Road to answer questions as a witness – he is not an accused – in the liquor policy case.
The CBI has said the then secretary to Mr Sisodia told investigators that the draft liquor policy was given to him in March 2021 by the now-arrested leader at Mr Kejriwal’s home.
The bureaucrat, C Arvind, has given the statement before a magistrate, making it admissible evidence in court. The CBI wanted Mr Kejriwal’s statement on the meeting, as it allegedly took place at his home.
The excise policy was cleared by the Delhi government after an inquiry was ordered by the then Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal. The clearance came after it had been deferred twice. The CBI wants to find out why.
The Delhi government scrapped the new liquor policy in July 2022, less than a year after it was introduced, and reverted to the old policy.
