New Delhi: India Wednesday summoned a senior American diplomat and issued a strongly-worded demarche against the US State Department’s remarks on the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in a money-laundering case.
India said that in diplomacy, states are expected to be respectful of the sovereignty and internal affairs of others and this responsibility was even more so in case of fellow democracies. “It could otherwise end up setting unhealthy precedents,” according to a statement by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).
The MEA summoned a senior US diplomat, Acting Deputy Chief of Mission Gloria Berbena, to its office in South Block in the afternoon for a 30 minute-meeting.
In the statement, MEA also said it took “strong objection to the remarks of the Spokesperson of the US State Department about certain legal proceedings in India”.
It warned against “casting aspersions” on India’s legal processes, calling them unwarranted. “India’s legal processes are based on an independent judiciary which is committed to objective and timely outcomes,” it said.
On Tuesday, the US Department of State had called for a “fair” and “transparent” legal process in Kejriwal’s case. A spokesperson for the US Department of State told Reuters in an email response Monday, “We encourage a fair, transparent, and timely legal process for Chief Minister Kejriwal.”
Days prior, India had summoned German deputy chief of mission Georg Enzweiler and strongly protested remarks made by the country’s foreign ministry on the Delhi chief minister’s arrest.
This was after Sebastian Fischer, a spokesperson for the German federal foreign ministry, said at a press conference, “We assume and expect that the standards relating to independence of judiciary and basic democratic principles will also be applied in this case.”
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Kejriwal was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on 21 March in a money-laundering case linked to the now-scrapped liquor policy of 2021-22.
The central agency has alleged that Aam Aadmi Party leaders formulated the policy to favour a group from South India and received kickbacks in lieu of licences in the national capital.
After the arrest, the central agency told a trial court that Kejriwal was the “kingpin and key conspirator of the Delhi excise policy scam who generated and used proceeds of crime in the Goa election”.
It held that Kejriwal — being the national convener of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and a member of its political affairs committee and national executive — was “ultimately responsible for the funds being used in the election expenses, including their generation” and thus was “guilty of this conspiracy”.
Former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, party MP Sanjay Singh and Bharat Rashtra Samithi leader from Telangana K. Kavitha are already in custody in connection with the case.
Agency sources have said they have “sufficient proof” and “statements of other accused” to establish that the AAP chief asked for Rs 100 crore from Kavitha in exchange for benefits in the liquor trade in the capital.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has hit out at the Narendra Modi government, arguing that Kejriwal’s arrest, which took place on the cusp of general elections in the country, violated the basic structure of the Constitution.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
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