Indian Authority Detains Delhi CM Over Alleged Liquor Policy Scam

Arvind Kejriwal has become the first sitting CM to be arrested in the history of India.

Indian Authority Detains Delhi CM Over Alleged Liquor Policy Scam

Arvind Kejriwal, Chief Minister of New Delhi, was detained on Thursday in connection with an alleged liquor policy fraud, just weeks before the Indian national elections. 

According to NDTV, Kejriwal is the first sitting chief minister jailed in India's history. 

This evening, a 12-member team from the country's Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal at his apartment in North Delhi's Civil Lines. 

The ED team arrived at his home and began questioning him after the Delhi High Court declined to grant the CM immunity from coercive action in the excise policy case earlier today, according to the Indian Express.

The detention implies that the top leaders of the decade-old Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) are in jail after the arrests of two of Kejriwal's deputies in the same case last year, which the party has dubbed "dirty politics."

The Enforcement Directorate, a financial crime agency, is looking into charges that the Delhi government's 2022 liquor policy, which terminated state control over liquor sales in the city, provided private shops with unfair benefits. The policy was eventually revoked. 

Atishi, an AAP MP from Delhi, stated on social media that the party was seeking to overturn the recent arrest. 

"We have asked for an urgent hearing by the Supreme Court tonight itself," she added.