Atishi questions heavy security deployment outside Kejriwal's house, calls arrest by ED 'conspiracy'

New Delhi [India], March 22 : AAP Minister Atishi on Thursday alleged that the manner in which the Enforcement Directorate officials reached Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's residence with four buses full of police personnel and two buses full of RAF personnel to conduct searches and question AAP chief shows "conspiracy to arrest AAP chief ".
Kejriwal had skipped the central probe agency's summons nine times.
After a team of the Enforcement Directorate reached Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's official residence on Thursday late in the evening, for questioning, AAP Minister Atishi has alleged 'conspiracy' to arrest the party's national convener.
Speaking to the reporters here, Atishi claimed that the leaders of the party were not allowed to enter Kejriwal's residence.
"Arvind Kejriwal is not a person, he is an idea... We cannot go inside because heavy security is deployed. We will wait here. If a popular CM is arrested this way, his supporters from all over Delhi will come here," she said.
"If this is a search operation, why have they brought four buses full of police personnel?
Atishi also questioned the deployment of heavy security forces if the central agency landed there only for interrogation.
"The HC issued a notice today to the ED as to why are the summons not being quashed, and why interim relief shall not be provided to Arvind Kejriwal. Without waiting for the decision of the court, ED has arrived to arrest Arvind Kejriwal. If this is a search operation, why have they brought four buses full of police personnel? What was the need to bring two buses full of RAF personnel? What was the need to barricade the whole area?This is a conspiracy to arrest Arvind Kejriwal," the AAP minister said.
Hours after the Delhi High Court declined to grant Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal interim protection from coercive action by the Enforcement Directorate, a 12-member ED team landed at his home on Thursday evening.
This comes on a day he had been summoned by the ED--for the ninth time--in the Delhi excise policy case. Kejriwal has so far skipped all summons and approached the courts against them.
Arvind Kejriwal will continue as the Delhi Chief Minister and discharge his duties from jail, the Aam Aadmi Party said today minutes after he was arrested in connection with the Delhi liquor policy case.
"Arvind Kejriwal is and will remain the Chief Minister of Delhi... there are no two ways about it," said AAP's Atishi.
The Delhi High Court on Thursday had refused interim protection from coercive action to Kejriwal and said at this stage the court is not inclined to grant interim relief.
The court was hearing a plea by Kejriwal seeking protection from coercive action against him in connection with the excise policy case.
In a tweet, Punjab Chief Minister, AAP's Bhagwant Mann, wrote, "The BJP's political team (ED) cannot arrest Kejriwal's ideology... because only AAP can stop the BJP. Ideology can never be suppressed."
While Kejriwal was not named in the FIRs registered by the ED or the Central Bureau of Investigation in the Delhi excise policy case, his name first found a mention in the ED's chargesheet wherein the agency claimed that he allegedly spoke to one of the main accused, Sameer Mahendru, in a video call and asked him to continue working with co-accused and AAP communications-in-charge Vijay Nair.
Nair was among the first people to be arrested by CBI in the case, in 2022. Subsequently, former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh were arrested in connection with the case.