Casting aspersions on India's legal processes is unwarranted, says MEA
India has strongly objected to remarks by a US spokesperson on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's arrest, saying the country's legal processes were based on an independent judiciary.
 
"We take strong objection to the remarks of the Spokesperson of the US State Department about certain legal proceedings in India," the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a statement issued on Wednesday (March 27, 2024).
 
"In diplomacy, states are expected to be respectful of the sovereignty and internal affairs of others. This responsibility is even more so in case of fellow democracies. It could otherwise end up setting unhealthy precedents," the MEA noted.
 
According to the MEA statement, India’s legal processes are based on an independent judiciary which is committed to objective and timely outcomes. "Casting aspersions on that is unwarranted," it said.
 
According to media reports, a US State Department spokesperson, while answering a query on India summoning the German envoy over his comments on Kejriwal's arrest, had said that Washington had been closely following the reports. "We encourage a fair, transparent, and timely legal process for Chief Minister Kejriwal," a media report quoting him as saying.
 
On Saturday (March 23, 2024), the MEA had summoned the Deputy Chief of Mission of Germany in New Delhi and lodged a strong protest against remarks made by the country's foreign ministry spokesperson over Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal's arrest.
 
The MEA told the senior German diplomat that India sees such remarks as “undermining the independence of our judiciary”. Maintaining that the law would take its course in the matter, the MEA described "biased assumptions" made on this matter as "most unwarranted".
 
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Kejriwal on March 21, 2024, in a money-laundering case linked to the alleged excise policy 'scam'. He was arrested after the Delhi High Court refused to give him interim protection from coercive action at this stage.
 
The case pertains to alleged corruption and money-laundering in formulating and implementing the Delhi government's excise policy for 2021-22. This policy was later scrapped.