US doubles down, says ‘closely monitoring’ Kejriwal’s arrest, ‘freezing’ of Congress bank accounts

This came just hours after India summoned a senior American diplomat over earlier remarks by the US State Department about Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest.

File photo of Truman Building in Washington DC which houses offices of US State Dept | Representational image | Commons

New Delhi: Just hours after India reprimanded the US for weighing in on the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, the State Department has said it is not only monitoring the AAP leader’s incarceration but also the Congress’s allegations that their bank accounts had been frozen ahead of the upcoming general elections.

The US State Department added the country expected fair and transparent legal processes in both issues.

Its spokesperson Mathew Miller said in a press briefing Wednesday: “We continue to follow these actions closely, including the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal. We are also aware of the Congress Party’s allegations that tax authorities have frozen some of their bank accounts in a manner that will make it challenging to effectively campaign in the upcoming elections.”

“We encourage fair, transparent, and timely legal processes for each of these issues,” he added.

This comes a day after India summoned a senior American diplomat in New Delhi issued a strongly-worded demarche against the State Department’s earlier remarks on Kejriwal’s arrest in a money-laundering case.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had 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.

The MEA had similarly summoned a senior diplomat from the German embassy after the country’s foreign ministry in Berlin said it had taken note of Kejriwal’s arrest.

The MEA is yet to issue a response to Miller’s latest statement about the alleged freeze on the Congress’s accounts.

Last week, during a press conference, Gujarat Congress president Shaktisinh Gohil alleged that the Narendra Modi government had frozen the party’s bank accounts to cripple it financially ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

He claimed the government had seized over Rs 100 crore by blocking 11 bank accounts in relation to a seven-year-old income tax matter. The Congress leader added this has hurt the party’s ability to fund the poll campaign.

The BJP, however, argued the Congress had multiple bank accounts and just three or four of them had been attached – and “not frozen” – for alleged tax evasion.

Arvind Kejriwal was arrested on 21 March by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money-laundering case linked to the now-scrapped liquor policy of 2021-22.

Kejriwal has been accused of being the “kingpin and key conspirator” of the Delhi excise policy “scam”.

The central agency has said that Kejriwal — as the chief 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”.

(Tiklli Basu)