Arvind Kejriwal: Delhi chief minister remanded to custody in corruption case

A court has ordered the prominent Indian opposition politician and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal be remanded in custody following his arrest over corruption allegations.

Mr Kejriwal, leader of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), was detained on Thursday by India's financial crimes agency.

He has denied any wrongdoing and opposition leaders say his arrest is politically motivated.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has denied the allegation.

The party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi says the authorities are acting against corruption.

Mr Kejriwal was produced in a Delhi trial court on Friday and remanded in custody until 28 March.

After he was detained, his lawyer Shadan Farasat told news agency AFP: "We are considering our next course of action."

Meanwhile, dozens of AAP leaders have been detained in the capital and sporadic protests erupted elsewhere across India against Mr Kejriwal's arrest, weeks before general elections.

AAP leaders have said that they will continue their protests and will hold one outside the prime minister's residence.

"Kejriwal has been arrested to stop him from campaigning in the general elections," said AAP leader and Delhi finance minister Atishi, who uses only one name.

"This is a way to steal elections," she added in a statement.

Mr Kejriwal's arrest by a financial crimes agency comes as a blow to the opposition just weeks before India's general elections. AAP is part of the 27-party INDIA alliance aiming to challenge the BJP.

Alluding to Mr Modi, Rahul Gandhi of the main opposition Congress party wrote on X, formerly Twitter: "A scared dictator wants to create a dead democracy."

"The arrest of elected chief ministers has become a common thing," Mr Gandhi wrote.

Sharad Pawar, leader of the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar), said that Mr Kejriwal's arrest showcases the "depth to which BJP will stoop for power".

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said Mr Kejriwal's arrest would "give birth to a new people's revolution".

"BJP knows that it will not come to power again, due to this fear, it wants to remove the opposition leaders from the public by any means at the time of elections, arrest is just an excuse," he posted on X.

Pinarayi Vijayan, the chief minister of Kerala, said Mr Kejriwal's arrest is "outright vicious and part of a callous plot to silence all opposition voices just ahead of the general elections".

His counterpart in Tamil Nadu, MK Stalin, said: "Not a single BJP leader faces scrutiny or arrest, laying bare their abuse of power and the decay of democracy."

"The relentless persecution of opposition leaders by the BJP government smacks of a desperate witch-hunt. This tyranny ignites public fury, unmasking BJP's true colours," Mr Stalin said.

In the past year or so, several opposition leaders have been imprisoned, questioned or had cases filed against them by federal agencies.

K Kavitha, leader of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), was arrested in the same case as Mr Kejriwal just days ago. She denies the allegations.

In January, Hemant Soren, former Jharkhand chief minister and leader of the opposition Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), was arrested by a federal tax agency on charges of money laundering and land-grabbing. Mr Soren denies the allegations.

Mr Gandhi himself was convicted of criminal libel last year after a complaint by a member of the BJP.

His two-year prison sentence saw him disqualified from parliament for a time until the verdict was suspended by a higher court in August last year.

On Thursday, the Congress party accused Mr Modi's government of using the tax department to starve them of finances ahead of elections.

Mr Kejriwal is the third AAP leader to be arrested over the alleged corruption case related to a now-scrapped liquor policy in Delhi.

The Enforcement Directorate also arrested Mr Kejriwal's deputy, Manish Sisodia, and AAP lawmaker Sanjay Singh in the same case last year.

Since coming to power in Delhi in 2013, AAP secured significant victories in Punjab's state elections in 2022 and gained a few seats in Mr Modi's home state of Gujarat in the same year.