New Delhi, Apr 9 (PTI) Senior BJP leader and Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Tuesday said that Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal should resign taking moral responsibility in view of the High Court order dismissing the plea against his arrest and remand in the excise policy case.

Kejriwal was issued nine summons by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) between November 2023 and March 2024. He kept "evading" these notices over the past six months under some "pretext" or the other, the minister claimed.

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"It is high time Arvind Kejriwal taking moral responsibility, resigns as the Delhi chief minister," Puri said in a statement.

The law has caught up with him and the court has been "unsparing" and upheld his arrest by the ED and remand hearing the plea challenging his arrest, he said.

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Puri said Kejriwal's continuation as the chief minister behind bars is an "exercise in shamelessness", adding he should put in his papers and let someone else run the Delhi government.

The AAP leaders have accused the BJP of trying to finish the party and Kejriwal by sending him to jail and then toppling his government in Delhi by poaching its MLAs.

Commenting on the High Court order, AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj said that the so called excise policy case was not a money laundering case but the "biggest political conspiracy" against Kejriwal to finish him and the party ruled governments in Delhi and Punjab.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)