Arvind Kejriwal, who was remanded to 6-day Enforcement Directorate custody by a district court on Friday, said that he would not resign as Delhi Chief Minister and run the government from jail, if needed.
"I will not resign as Chief Minister of Delhi. If needed, I will run the government from jail," he said while speaking to media soon after the Rouse Avenue Court granted his custody to the Enforcement Directorate in the liquor policy case.
"Andar ho ya bahar, sarkar wahi se chalegi [Whether I am inside (jail) or outside, the government will run from there]," the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo said.
Following a three-hour-long hearing in Delhi court, Special Judge Kaveri Baweja sent Kejriwal to the Enforcement Directorate's custody till March 28, a day after he was arrested by the probe agency from his official residence.
The court passed the order on the Enforcement Directorate's (ED) application seeking 10-day custody in the case.
During the hearing, the probe agency termed Kejriwal as a "key conspirator" in the alleged excise policy scam case along with other AAP ministers and party leaders.
The 55-year-old activist-turned-politician was produced in the trial court shortly after he withdrew from the Supreme Court his plea against his arrest by the agency.
The Enforcement Directorate also alleged that Kejriwal received several crores of rupees as kickbacks from the 'South group' for formulating and implementing the Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22.
Meanwhile, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who was representing Kejriwal in the court, said this is the first time in the history of India that a sitting Chief Minister has been arrested.
"The power of arrest is not equal to the need of arrest and there was no necessity of arresting this man," Singhvi told court.
