"Arvind Kejriwal got arrested because of his own deeds," says Anna Hazare

Reacting to the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, his former associate Anna Hazare on Friday expressed his grief over the Aam Aadmi Party convenor's involvement in formulating liquor policies, and said he was arrested because of his own deeds.

"I am very upset that Arvind Kejriwal, who used to work with me, raise his voice against liquor, is now making liquor policies. His arrest is because of his own deeds," social activist Hazare said in Ahmednagar.




Drama unfolded in the capital city of India last night when the Enforcement Directorate arrested Kejriwal in the excise policy case.

A team from the Enforcement Directorate arrived at Kejriwal's residence on Thursday to interrogate him regarding the liquor policy case. During a search operation conducted at his residence, Kejriwal was arrested amidst dramatic circumstances, as the AAP convener failed to obtain interim protection from arrest in the liquor policy case from the Delhi High Court. The Enforcement Directorate took him to the agency's headquarters later. Kejriwal on Friday withdrew his plea from the Supreme Court and said that he would challenge the arrest by ED in a lower court.

This is not the first time Hazare has spoken out about Kejriwal's involvement in the excise policy case, having written a letter to him in August 2022 claiming "Aap satta ke nashe mein doob gaye hain."

Hazare at the time reminded Kejriwal about the latter's book 'Swaraj' which favoured liquor ban.

"You wrote several idealistic things in the book. Everyone had hopes from you but it seems that after becoming the CM, you forgot that ideology and that is why the Delhi government came up with a new liquor policy," he said. "The policy will spur corruption and this thing is not at all in the interest of the people. But still, you took the decision to bring the new liquor policy. Like addiction of liquor, there is an addiction of power and it seems that you have sunk into it," Hazare said in the letter.

Earlier on, Sharmistha Mukherjee, daughter of former President Pranab Mukherjee accused Kejriwal and the Anna Hazare group of making 'irresponsible, baseless allegations against then Delhi Chief Minister and Congress leader Sheila Dikshit during their protests nearly a decade ago.

(With wire inputs)