Kejriwal should resign immediately: Delhi BJP chief after CM's arrest by ED

The BJP demanded Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's immediate resignation after he was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in an excise policy-linked money laundering case.

''Today every citizen of Delhi is satisfied that the chief minister, implicated in allegations of corruption, has finally been arrested,'' Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva told reporters.

''The arrest of Arvind Kejriwal is the defeat of corruption. Kejriwal should resign immediately,'' he said.

Kejriwal's arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the first of a sitting chief minister, came hours after the Delhi High Court refused to grant him protection from any coercive action by the agency.

Agency officials said the 55-year-old AAP national convenor would be produced before a court here on Friday and the ED would seek his custody for interrogation in the case.

Delhi BJP president Sachdeva said the liquor scam started in Delhi in 2021-22, and one revelations after another exposed how corruption took place and money was laundered.

''While Kejriwal staged a drama against drugs in Punjab, he pushed the youth into the abyss of addiction by opening liquor shops and bar rooms in every street in Delhi,'' he charged.

He said AAP leaders' statements that Kejriwal will run the government from jail ''is an insult to constitutional norms''.

''(Then Jharkhand Chief Minister) Hemant Soren also said the same thing, but upon being arrested (in a separate case), he had to resign, and the same will happen in Delhi as well,'' Sachdeva said.

Earlier in the day, as an ED team reached the chief minister's residence to carry out searches, the Delhi BJP chief told reporters, ''If Kejriwal has any morality left, he should step down and cooperate with the ED.'' Drama is still going on outside Kejriwal's residence which shows the AAP is a team of ''anarchists'', he charged, referring to protest by AAP leaders and workers.

There is rule of law and everyone, including the AAP, has to follow it, Sachdeva said.

''What ideology are they talking about. Is doing corruption is an ideology. Giving substandard medicines, liquor scam, corruption in Delhi Jal Board, are these your ideology,'' He asked the AAP.

The 55-year-old leader's arrest, amid campaign for the Lok Sabha elections, drew angry reactions from his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). The party said Kejriwal ''will continue as the chief minister of Delhi. If need be, he will run the government from jail.'' Kejriwal is also facing an ED case in connection with alleged irregularities in the Delhi Jal Board (DJB).

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)