'Kejriwal's arrest by ED-CBI was illegal'

New Delhi : Senior AAP leader Sanjay Singh on Monday alleged that party supremo Arvind Kejriwal's arrest by Enforcement Directorate in March was "completely illegal and unauthorized" because it was done without MHA's sanction.

No immediate reaction was available by the ED over the AAP leader's allegations.

Singh alleged that the sanction of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) being sought now to prosecute Kejriwal, made it clear that ED-CBI arrested him under the BJP pressure. Kejriwal, the former chief minister of Delhi, was arrested from his residence by the ED in an excise policy-linked money laundering case, on March 21.

He was again arrested by the CBI in the excise policy case in June, just before his plea against a High Court stay on bail granted to him by a lower court was to be heard by the Supreme Court.

Singh said a sitting chief minister can not be arrested without MHA sanction and questioned who will give Kejriwal back six months of his life spent in jail. Kejriwal was granted bail by the Supreme Court in September and released from Tihar jail where he was under judicial custody. The AAP leader further charged that Kejriwal's arrest was "intended" to topple the AAP government in Delhi and "ruin" the party.