An Indian court sent Delhi chief minister and key opposition leader Arvind Kejriwal to jail until April 15 in a liquor graft case on Monday, local media reported, less than three weeks before the country begins voting in national elections.
India’s financial crime-fighting agency had arrested Kejriwal in connection with corruption allegations related to the city’s liquor policy and he had been remanded to the agency’s custody until April 1.
Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party 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 on Monday that Kejriwal had been “non-cooperative” and was “giving evasive replies” and asked the court to remand him to judicial custody for 15 days, news website Live Law reported.
Kejriwal blamed Modi for his arrest. “What the prime minister is doing is not good for the country,” he told reporters on his way to court.—Agencies
