Kejriwal's arrest: AAP accuses Mumbai police of high-handedness during protest

Mumbai: The Aam Aadmi Party on Friday accused the Mumbai police of high-handedness while they were protesting in the early hours against the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

AAP’s Maharashtra president Preeti Sharma Menon said their workers were shoved and beaten and women were detained in the night.

She alleged some of the workers were even punched.

“Unbelievable police brutality today. @AAPMumbai was dragged, beaten, punched while protesting against the unlawful arrest of Arvind Kejriwal by Modi's ED," Menon tweeted.

The ED arrested Kejriwal, who is also the national convenor of AAP, in an excise policy-linked money laundering case on Thursday night and took him to the agency's headquarters here, officials said.

The arrest, the first of a sitting chief minister, came hours after the Delhi High Court refused to grant protection to the AAP national convenor from any coercive action by the agency.

The 55-year-old leader’s arrest, amid campaign for the Lok Sabha elections, drew angry reactions from AAP. The party said Kejriwal “will continue as the chief minister of Delhi. If need be, he will run the government from jail”.

Various constituents of the I.N.D.I.A. bloc condemned Kejriwal's arrest and claimed that the BJP is scared of the outcome of the upcoming Lok Sabha polls and acting out of panic to create problems for the opposition.