US State Department said on Monday that the USA is “closely following reports of the arrest of Indian opposition figure Arvind Kejriwal and encourages a fair legal process”.
Arvind Kejriwal: After the German Foreign Ministry issued an official statement on the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, a US State Department spokesperson said on Monday that the USA is “closely following reports of the arrest of Indian opposition figure Arvind Kejriwal and encourages a fair legal process”.
Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the Delhi Liquor Policy case on March 21. He will remain under the ED custody till March 28.
Kejriwal, a national opposition figure and chief minister of Delhi’s capital territory, was arrested by India’s financial crime-fighting agency on Thursday on corruption charges that his political party rejects, a month before national elections, reported news agency Reuters.
“We encourage a fair, transparent, and timely legal process for Chief Minister Kejriwal,” the US spokesperson said in response to an emailed query about the case, in which India summoned a German envoy on Saturday to protest against his government’s remarks about the arrest, Reuters reports.
Asked about the arrest at a government press conference on Friday, Sebastian Fischer, spokesperson for Germany’s foreign office said that like anyone else facing accusations, Kejriwal was entitled to a fair and impartial trial.
“We assume and expect that the standards relating to independence of judiciary and basic democratic principles will also be applied in this case,” he said.
Interestingly, the agency has highlighted the enhancement of the India-America relationship as it said, “Washington has increasingly come to see India as an important strategic and economic partner in its effort to push back against China’s growing power worldwide.
“Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has frequently shown itself sensitive to human rights criticism, and rights advocates have accused US President Joe Biden’s administration of putting strategic considerations above such issues in its dealings with New Delhi.”
The Indian embassy in Washington has not issued any statement in this regard till the filing of this report.
(With Reuters inputs)
Source link
