New Delhi, Mar 31 (ANI): Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann addresses the ‘Loktantra Bachao’ Maharally, at Ramlila Maidan, in New Delhi on Sunday. (ANI Photo/Amit Sharma)
| Photo Credit: ANI

Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann along with AAP MLAs and volunteers will sit on a fast on April 7 to protest against the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, a party leader said.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had given the call for a nationwide collective fast on April 7 against the arrest of the Delhi chief minister.

Kejriwal, who is also the AAP national convener, was arrested last month by the Enforcement Directorate in an excise policy-linked money laundering case. He had been sent to judicial custody till April 15.

Addressing the media, AAP MLA Dinesh Chadha said the Punjab chief minister and the ruling party’s legislators will sit on a fast at Khatkar Kalan in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar district on April 7 in the fight to save democracy.

He also appealed to the people of Punjab to take part in the fast.

Alleging that the BJP-led Centre was behind the arrest of Kejriwal’s arrest, the Rupnagar legislator claimed that the saffron party considers the AAP and its national convener its “biggest threat.” Kejriwal has been put behind bars without the probe agency recovering a single penny, he said.

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.