Delhi chief minister sent to jail in graft case

An Indian court sent Delhi chief minister and key opposition leader Arvind Kejriwal to jail until April 15 in a liquor graft case yesterday, media reported, less than three weeks before the country begins voting in national elections.

India’s financial crime-fighting agency had arrested Kejriwal over corruption allegations related to the city’s liquor policy and he had been remanded until yesterday.

Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) says he has been “falsely arrested” in a “fabricated” case, but Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government and his Bharatiya Janata Party deny political interference.

Lawyers for the agency said Kejriwal had been “non-cooperative” and was “giving evasive replies” and asked the court to remand him to judicial custody for 15 days.

Kejriwal blamed Modi for his arrest.

“What the prime minister is doing is not good for the country,” he said.

All the senior leaders of AAP were already imprisoned in the same graft case before Kejriwal’s arrest.

The action against the highprofile leader sparked protests last week in the capital and the northern state of Punjab, which is also governed by his party.

The court’s decision comes a day after the India bloc, an alliance of 27 opposition parties including AAP, came together at a rally in New Delhi to protest against Kejriwal’s arrest and accused Modi of seeking to rig the elections.

In related developments, the Income Tax department told the country’s top court yesterday it will not pursue a 35-billion rupee (RM1.9 billion) payment from the main opposition Congress party until after the general elections in June.

The tax department’s decision is seen as a breather for the Congress, which has been served multiple income tax notices over the past month and authorities have recovered 1.35 billion rupees in penalties from its bank accounts weeks before voting begins on April 19. – Reuters