AAP leaders Raghav Chadha, Sanjay Singh, Jasmine Shah and other party workers have been detained while protesting against chief minister Arvind Kejriwal's questioning by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
In protest of the CBI summons, AAP leaders took to the streets of Delhi on Sunday, causing heavy traffic in the national capital.
Other AAP leaders who were protesting outside the CBI office included Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and Delhi ministers Atishi, Raghav Chadha, Sanjay Singh, and Saurabh Bharadwaj.
Over one thousand AAP workers who were protesting in favor of Kejriwal were also held by the Delhi Police.
Addressing ANI, Atishi said, "Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scared of the growing popularity of Arvind Kejriwal. This is the reason why the leaders of AAP are being put in jail. This is the reason Arvind Kejriwal has been called for questioning by CBI. They say that it is a scam of thousands of crores but till now they have not been able to prove that even a single rupee was embezzled. The entire country is with Arvind Kejriwal."
Kejriwal Appears Before CBI
As party leaders protested outside the CBI's office and elsewhere in the city, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal appeared before the agency on Sunday to answer questions regarding the excise policy.
The leader of the AAP said that since he has nothing to hide, he would answer the CBI's questions about the excise case in the truth.
"I have been summoned by CBI today and I will give all the answers with honesty. These people are very powerful. They can send anyone to jail, it does not matter if that person has committed any crime or not," the AAP leader said.
"Since yesterday, all of their leaders are screaming at top of their voices that Kejriwal will be arrested and I think BJP has instructed CBI also that Kejriwal should be arrested. If BJP has given an order, then who is CBI? CBI is going to arrest me," he said.
Talking to reporters at his residence before leaving for the CBI office, he said, "I am going to the CBI office, and will answer all questions. After 75 years, such a government came to Delhi which created hope. Development has taken place after 75 years".
His Punjab counterpart, Bhagwant Mann, and a few cabinet colleagues accompanied Kejriwal to the agency's office.
Kejriwal was taken to the first-floor office of the CBI's Anti-Corruption Branch, which is investigating the matter, following his arrival at the agency's headquarters. Top AAP leaders, such as Mann, Delhi Ministers Saurabh Bharadwaj, Atishi, and Kailash Gahlot, as well as Rajya Sabha MPs Sandeep Pathak, Raghav Chadha, and Sanjay Singh, gathered near the CBI headquarters and raised slogans against the Prime Minister.
They stated that the agency had summoned Kejriwal last Friday in order to request his appearance as a witness before the investigation team in order to respond to their inquiries regarding the inputs generated during the investigation, which also resulted in the arrest of his former deputy Manish Sisodia on February 26.
According to them, senior agency officials remained in the office on Sunday to monitor the situation, as is customary whenever a VIP visits the agency.