New Delhi, Apr 9 (IANS): Union Minister for Housing & Urban Affairs, Hardeep Singh Puri, said on Tuesday that Arvind Kejriwal should immediately resign as Delhi Chief Minister owning moral responsibility.

“His continuation as the CM behind bars is an exercise in shamelessness. It is high time he puts in his papers and lets someone else run the government in Delhi,” the Union Minister said.

Hardeep Puri issued the statement after the Delhi High Court on Tuesday rejected Kejriwal’s plea challenging his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the remand order passed by a trial court in connection with the excise policy case.

“Arvind Kejriwal was issued nine summons by the Enforcement Directorate between November 2023 and March 2024. But over the past six months, he kept evading these notices under some pretext or the other,” Hardeep Puri said.

“The law has caught up with Kejriwal’s nefarious act of taking kickbacks for rewriting the liquor policy, all during a time when Delhi was reeling under the onslaught of Covid in September 2020,” added the Union Minister.

He also said that when Kejriwal's plea came up before the Delhi High Court on Tuesday, the court was unsparing in upholding his arrest and remand.

“Kejriwal is in bed with the very people against whom he started the anti-corruption movement in 2011 with Anna Hazare Ji. This exposes him thoroughly,” the Minister stated.