New Delhi:

Battlelines are drawn after the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal by the Enforcement Directorate in the alleged liquor policy scam, with his Aam Aadmi Party calling nationwide protests outside the BJP offices.

The Supreme Court is likely to take up today Mr Kejriwal’s petition against his arrest, a day after it denied an urgent hearing in his plea against the raids. The probe agency, meanwhile, will produce the Chief Minister in an ED court.

Mr Kejriwal’s arrest, just weeks ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, has unleashed waves of protest by thousands of party workers and condemnation from the Opposition camp. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will also visit Mr Kejriwal’s family today, said sources,

Read | Explained: Why Enforcement Directorate Arrested Arvind Kejriwal

The AAP has said that Mr Kejriwal will continue to discharge his chief ministerial duties from jail – a prospect that may create a constitutional crisis, legal experts have said.

The Enforcement Directorate, which is investigating a money laundering angle in the alleged liquor policy scam, had called Mr Kejriwal a “conspirator”.

The probe team turned up at Mr Kejriwal’s home last evening with a search warrant after he skipped nine summonses by the central agency. Later in the day, the Delhi High Court refused to grant him protection from arrest.

Read | AAP Says Arvind Kejriwal Will Remain Chief Minister. How Feasible Is That?

The agency arrested him around 9 pm after a search and questioning session and took him to the ED office. His and his wife’s phones were also confiscated and data was transferred from two tablets and a laptop at his home. Mr Kejriwal spent the night in an ED lock-up after a medical check-up from the RML hospital, sources said.

Delhi minister Atishi has called the arrest a “conspiracy by the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi” and said Mr Kejriwal will remain the Delhi Chief Minister. “We have said from the beginning that he will run the government from jail if need be. He has not been convicted… No law stops him from doing so,” she said in Hindi.

At a post-midnight press conference, AAP called a nationwide protest against the BJP on Friday. In Delhi, the protest will take place outside the BJP headquarters.

Mr Kejriwal’s arrest comes less than a week after BRS leader K Kavitha was taken into custody in the liquor policy case. Mr Kejriwal was named as a conspirator for the first time after Ms Kavitha’s arrest.

New Delhi:

The AAP’s Delhi unit convenor Gopal Rai gave a call on Thursday for a nationwide protest against the BJP following Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

Mr Rai said Kejriwal’s arrest is the “murder of democracy” and an “announcement of dictatorship”.

The ED arrested Arvind Kejriwal in an excise policy-linked money-laundering case on Thursday evening and took him to the agency’s headquarters here, officials said.

The arrest, the first of a sitting chief minister, came hours after the Delhi High Court refused to grant protection to the AAP national convenor from any coercive action by the federal agency.

“I appeal to the countrymen to protest outside BJP offices across the country against this dictatorship. We will gather at the AAP office at 10 am on Friday and then protest outside the BJP headquarters,” Rai, a minister in the Delhi government, said.

“If Kejriwal can be arrested, anyone can be arrested and their voice can be suppressed. From today, the fight has begun. Arvind Kejriwal is not a person, but an ideology,” he added.

Ever since the INDIA bloc was formed, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the Centre feels that it will not get 400 seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls but will only be restricted to 40 seats, Mr Rai claimed.

Thus, the saffron party is targeting opposition leaders, he alleged.  “Today, they have crossed all limits. All of you will go home tonight. I appeal to Delhiites to join the fight,” the ministe                                                       r said.

At a midnight press conference, Delhi ministers Atishi, Gopal Rai and the AAP’s Rajya Sabha MP Sandeep Pathak condemned the way in which Kejriwal was arrested.

Delhi minister Saurabh Bharadwaj was also present.

Addressing the press conference, Pathak said, “This is no longer a fight between the BJP and the AAP. This is a fight between the country’s people and the BJP. This is no longer a fight of the AAP but a fight of all those who want clean politics in the country.” Atishi said Kejriwal’s fight will continue from the “roads to the court”.

“The Supreme Court will hear the case on Friday. This arrest is unconstitutional. They arrested (former Jharkhand chief minister) Hemant Soren, Arvind Kejriwal and froze the accounts of Congress,” she said.

Earlier, Delhi Congress chief Arvinder Singh Lovely joined the AAP protest outside Kejriwal’s residence.

“They have arrested Hemant Soren, Arvind Kejriwal, frozen our accounts. In what direction is the country’s democracy heading? We are standing with our INDIA bloc partner and will fight the elections strongly,” Lovely said. PTI SLB RC

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)