‘How many years for those shielding criminals?’: AAP chief Kejriwal hits out at Amit Shah on Bill to remove jailed ministers
In March 2024, Arvind Kejriwal became the first sitting Chief Minister to be arrested in the Enforcement Directorate’s probe into the Delhi excise policy case.
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Kejriwal went on to ask: “If someone is falsely implicated in a case, sent to jail, and later acquitted, how many years of imprisonment should the minister who falsely implicated him face?”Former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal Monday took on Union Home Minister Amit Shah over the Constitution (One Hundred and Thirtieth Amendment) Bill, 2025, attacking him on what he referred to as the Centre’s “plan to topple Opposition governments through arrests”.
The Bill, which was sent to a Joint Committee, mandates resignation of ministers at the state or Centre if they remain in custody for over 30 days on charges of “serious offences” or corruption.
Responding to Shah’s social media post defending the move, Kejriwal posed a counter-question: “Should a person who includes criminals of serious crimes in his party, gets all their cases dismissed, and makes them ministers, deputy chief ministers, or chief ministers, also be required to resign? How many years of imprisonment should such a person face?”
Kejriwal went on to ask: “If someone is falsely implicated in a case, sent to jail, and later acquitted, how many years of imprisonment should the minister who falsely implicated him face?”
For Kejriwal, the exchange is personal. In March 2024, he became the first sitting Chief Minister to be arrested in the Enforcement Directorate’s probe into the Delhi excise policy case. His incarceration for nearly six months brought Delhi’s governance to a halt, as he was barred from signing files or issuing orders in his capacity as CM.
During that period, AAP coined the phrase “sarkar jail se chalegi (the government will run from jail)” to justify his refusal to resign.
Kejriwal eventually resigned after securing bail in September 2024, months before the February 2025 Assembly elections that ended AAP’s hold over Delhi and cemented the BJP’s win.
AAP Delhi president Saurabh Bharadwaj had earlier said, “Kejriwal ji knew all along that this was the Centre’s plan – to arrest Opposition CMs and ministers to disable governments. Now, they will bring laws to execute this conspiracy. First, they file false cases, then they jail them, then topple the government.”
Kejriwal once again defended his stance to run the government from jail on Monday. He wrote on X: “Under a political conspiracy, when the central government framed me in a false case and sent me to jail, I ran the government for 160 days from jail. In the last seven months, the BJP government in Delhi has made such a mess that people are now remembering that ‘jail government’… at least then, there were no power cuts, water was supplied, free medicines and mohalla clinic tests were available, schools were not allowed to loot.”
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