Kejriwal claims AAP's Raghav Chadha will be arrested soon

New Delhi Sep 30: Preparations are underway to arrest Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Raghav Chadha since he was appointed as the party's co-incharge of political affairs in Gujarat, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal claimed on Friday.

Kejriwal, however, did not specify which agency was working on the alleged plan to arrest Chadha and on what charges. Rajya Sabha MP Chadha, who is credited with playing a significant role in the AAP's victory in the assembly elections in Punjab earlier this year, was recently appointed as co-incharge of the party's political affairs in Gujarat where elections are due this year.

"We are hearing that these people will arrest Ragav Chadha now since he has been appointed as co-incharge of Gujarat and he has started participating in poll campaigns in Gujarat," Kejriwal, the AAP’s national convenor, said in a Tweet in Hindi. "In which case they will (arrest) and what will be the allegations, these people are working on these points at present," he added.

Kejriwal's claim comes after the CBI arrested the party's media communications in-charge Vijay Nair in connection with the alleged Delhi excise policy "scam" on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Kejriwal slammed the BJP-led Centre over Nair's arrest and asked his party workers and leaders to be ready to go to jail, saying anyone from AAP could now be arrested on false charges as the BJP was scared of losing Gujarat.

He also defended Nair and said he was just a "small worker" of the AAP and that he had nothing to do with the excise policy. He alleged that the CBI arrested Nair following several rounds of questioning over the past few days after he refused to buckle under their pressure to give a false statement against Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia to implicate the senior AAP leader in the alleged excise "scam".

Nair was arrested also because he was engaged in preparing the AAP's communications strategy to drive the party's poll campaign in Gujarat after the elections in Punjab earlier this year, Kejriwal alleged.