AAP comes all out to protest Kejriwal’s questioning by CBI; over 1,000 detained

AAP members hit the streets of the national capital in protest against the questioning of AAP national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in connection with the alleged liquor scam at the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) headquarters on Sunday.

The rank and file of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), from Delhi and Punjab, hit the streets of the national capital in protest against the questioning of AAP national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in connection with the alleged liquor scam at the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) headquarters on Sunday.

The allegation that the Delhi government’s now-scrapped 2021-22 excise policy favoured certain dealers led to an investigation by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

The CBI headquarters, where the CM was questioned for over nine hours, was turned into a fortress, with multiple layers of barricading and a heavy deployment of police and paramilitary personnel.

At least 1,350 AAP leaders and workers were detained during the protests, the police said.

The detainees, including Rajya Sabha members Sanjay Singh and Raghav Chadha, Delhi Ministers Kailash Gahlot, Saurabh Bharadwaj and Atishi, Punjab Minister Harjot Singh Bains and AAP national general secretary Sandeep Pathak, were released later in the evening.

The police started rounding up AAP leaders soon after Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann, who reached the CBI headquarters with Mr. Kejriwal around 11 a.m., left the area around 2:45 p.m.

Speaking to The Hindu, Mr. Singh said the AAP chief had been called for questioning by the CBI “out of frustration” after he had spoken on the Modi-Adani issue in the Delhi Assembly.