'My arrest illegal, violates democracy'

CHIEF Minister Arvind Kejriwal filed his response to the ED's affidavit in the Supreme Court on Saturday, stating that the mode, manner, and timing of his arrest just before the Lok Sabha elections and the enforcement of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) indicated the arbitrary nature of the central agencies actions.

- SUCHITRA K MOHANTY

In his rejoinder, filed in the top court and accessed by this newspaper, Kejriwal said, "My arrest is a classic case of how the ruling party-led central government has misused the ED and PMLA to crush its biggest political opponent, the AAP and its leaders." 

"My arrest constitutes an unprecedented assault on the tenets of democracy, based on free and fair elections and federalism, both of which form significant constituents of the basic structure of the Constitution. Devoid of any cogent reason, the ED is now raising frivolous and fictitious grounds to justify my illegal arrest," Kejriwal said in his reply.