The first former CM to have been arrested was then AIADMK chief late J Jayalalithaa in 1996, when the DMK was in power in Tamil Nadu.
Jayalalithaa was arrested on December 7, 1996, and sent to prison for a month on charges of corruption in the purchase of TV sets for villagers.
JMM chief and Hemant’s father Shibu Soren - a former Jharjhand CM - was convicted in December 2006 – when he was Union minister in the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government – in a case of conspiracy to kidnap and murder his private secretary Shashi Nath Jha. He resigned from the Union Cabinet and went to jail.
Shibu was, however, acquitted by the Delhi High Court later. In 2018, the Supreme Court upheld his acquittal, saying there was no evidence that the dead body exhumed was of his private secretary as the DNA samples did not match.
DMK leaders Murasoli Maran and Baalu became first serving Union ministers under PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee to have been held during Jayalalithaa govt in 2001, when they allegedly 'obstructed' police from arresting Karunanidhi
With the Enforcement Directorate (ED) arresting Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo Arvind Kejriwal Thursday night in connection with the alleged liquor policy scam, Kejriwal became the first sitting CM to have got arrested.
The ED’s move came hours after the Delhi High Court refused to grant Kejriwal protection from the central agency’s coercive action.
Notably, on Jan 31 (2024), Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) executive president Hemant Soren stepped down as the Jharkhand CM just before he was arrested by the ED in a money laundering case linked to an alleged land scam. He has been in jail since.
Champai Soren, the party veteran close to Hemant, is now the Chief Minister.
Notably again; Late Jayalalithaa also became the first CM to have been convicted in a disproportionate assets case by a Bengaluru court in 2014. She faced disqualification as an MLA, losing the CM’s post following her conviction.
In what was alleged as “political vendetta”, the Tamil Nadu police picked up then DMK chief and ex-CM M Karunanidhi on June 30, 2001, from the house of his wife Rajathi Ammal in Chennai’s Mylapore, when Jayalalithaa was the CM.
Murasoli Maran, the nephew of Karunanidhi, reached there and alleged that the DMK chief was beaten up while being taken out of the house.
Consequently, Maran and his party colleague T R Baalu, the then Union ministers under the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, were arrested for obstructing public servants performing their duties.
Maran even reportedly sustained injuries in the scuffle with the police. This was said to be the first instance when serving Union ministers were arrested.
On July 25, 1997, Bihar CM Lalu Prasad was served an arrest warrant in the fodder scam. He stepped down from his post, made his wife Rabri Devi the CM, and went to jail for about four months before getting bail. I K Gujral of Lalu's Janata Dal was the Prime Minister.
Lalu split the party and formed Rashtriya Janata Dal. He went to jail repeatedly since then, its total count till date being about six.
ED's case ..... : Delhi liquor policy 2021-22 provided an exceptionally high profit margin of 12 per cent for wholesalers and nearly 185 per cent for retailers
The ED's case is that the Delhi liquor policy 2021-22 provided an exceptionally high profit margin of 12 per cent for wholesalers and nearly 185 per cent for retailers.
Of the 12 per cent, 6 per cent was to be recovered from wholesalers as kickbacks for AAP leaders, and the "South Group" allegedly gave Rs 100 crore in advance to another accused, Vijay Nair, who was linked to the AAP.
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| Kejriwal and Vijay Nair |
Three top Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders including Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal have been arrested in the Delhi liquor policy case.
K Kavitha, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader and daughter of former Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, is also in jail. The other two are AAP MP Sanjay Singh and former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia.
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| BRS leader Ms Kavitha |
In 2023 it came to light that Delhi government’s now-withdrawn new liquor policy “prompted cartel formations through backdoor” and “incentivized other illegal activities” as part of a criminal conspiracy by top Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders to extract kickbacks from liquor barons, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had said in its supplementary chargesheet.
According to the chargesheet, AAP media and communications in-charge Vijay Nair allegedly received Rs 100 crore from the “south group” which comprised, among others, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader K. Kavitha, as advance kickbacks. This money — managed through “hawala channels” — was then used in the AAP’s poll campaign in Goa, the ED claimed.
The ED submitted that it believes Hyderabad-based businessman Abhishek Boinpally, who is also a representative of the “south group”, played a key role in the alleged conspiracy and payment of Rs 100 crore to Nair. Boinpally, the ED said, used to give a currency note number and mobile number to Dinesh Arora, another businessman, who shared them with two people who collected the funds from hawala operators in Delhi.
“Vijay Nair had told Dinesh to coordinate with Abhishek for bringing funds to the tune of Rs 20-30 crore from Hyderabad to Delhi. This money was the kickback from South Group to Vijay Nair on behalf of AAP,” said the chargesheet.
The ED submitted that Nair was the key person from the AAP who “orchestrated the conspiracy of kickbacks, undue favours and arm twisting”.
“Cash payments to the tune of Rs 70 lakh were made to volunteers part of survey teams. Moreover, advertisement-related work was directed to raise only part of the claims in the bill and receive the remaining in cash. These parts of cash payments were managed through hawala channels. Nair even directed firms to issue bogus invoices,” it said.
Mr Kejriwal's name had appeared in the statements of some accused and witnesses. The ED has mentioned this in its remand note and chargesheets.
Vijay Nair, one of the accused in the liquor policy case, frequently visited Mr Kejriwal's office, and would spend most of his time there, the probe agency said. Mr Nair allegedly told liquor traders that he discussed the policy with Mr Kejriwal. It was Mr Nair, who got Indospirit owner Sameer Mahendru to meet Mr Kejriwal, the investigators have said.
When the meeting was unsuccessful, he got Mr Mahendru and Mr Kejriwal talk in a video call, in which Mr Kejriwal said Mr Nair was his "child" who he trusts.
Raghav Magunta, the first accused in the "South Lobby" and now a witness, had said his father, who is a YSR Congress Party MP, met Mr Kejriwal to know more about the liquor policy. Mr Sisodia's former secretary C Arvind in a statement in December 2022 had said that in March the previous year he got a draft group of ministers report from Mr Sisodia.
When he went to Mr Kejriwal's house after Mr Sisodia called him, Mr Arvind said he also saw Satyendar Jain there and the document.
He alleged he was surprised because no such proposal was discussed in any group of ministers' (GoM) meeting, but claimed he was asked to make a GoM report based on this document.
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