Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, put on a stand before his family and half his cabinet, delivered a speech in court on Thursday questioning the evidence at the heart of the liquor policy case and criticising the ED.

The Aam Aadmi Party leader, who flagged how some accused had changed their testimonies, had told reporters before entering the court that the corruption case was a “political conspiracy”.

Special judge Kaveri Baweja of the Rouse Avenue district court extended Kejriwal’s ED custody till April 1. The agency had sought another week.

“(The) ED can keep me in custody as long as they want,” Kejriwal said.

Kejriwal’s strategy so far — learnt in part from jailed former Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren’s legal battle — had been to refuse to comply with the summons to him, questioning their legality. This was seen by many as evasion.

On Thursday, the AAP leader returned to his party’s default position on criminal investigations against its leaders: “Lock us up, but we have done no wrong.”

Kejriwal sat in the witness box behind a screen wearing an un-tucked, blue-and-red checkered shirt with a Reynolds 045 pen in his breast pocket, light-coloured pants and rubber slippers.

His wife Sunita, son Pulkit and daughter Harshita sat on a bench with Delhi
ministers Atishi, Saurabh Bhardwaj and Gopal Rai and party national executive member Adil Ahmad Khan.

“They’ve allowed home-cooked food but his blood sugar readings are very irregular,” Sunita told The Telegraph.

“For his health condition, sugar needs to be constantly monitored and responded to accordingly.”

Additional solicitor-general S.V. Raju, appearing via videoconferencing, said: “He gave evasive replies. We need to confront him with some other witnesses…. He has not disclosed the passwords, so we do not have access to digital data.”

Kejriwal then requested to be allowed to make a statement, to which the judge replied that the chief minister was being represented by a counsel. But Kejriwal persisted and the judge relented.

“ED’s only mission was to trap me…. ED has two goals: to finish off AAP and to create a smokescreen and run an extortion racket behind it,” Kejriwal said.

He focused on four testimonies presented by the prosecution — those of former excise minister Manish Sisodia’s secretary C. Arvind, YSR Congress MP Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy, his son Raghava Magunta, and Hyderabad-based businessman P. Sarath Chandra Reddy.

Kejriwal underscored that MP Reddy and his son had changed their statements after Raghava was kept in custody for five months. The chief minister accused the ED of suppressing the previous testimonies of these accused.

“C. Arvind said that he saw in my home that Manish Sisodia gave some excise documents. Many ministers come to my home every day, they talk among themselves. Is this sufficient reason to arrest a sitting CM.... I have evidence that a racket is running,” Kejriwal said.

“Money trail is established. He (Sarath Reddy) donated crores (via electoral bonds) to BJP after being arrested.”

The ED denied the allegations and said the accused had given reasons for changing their statements.

ASG Raju said: “All these submissions have been made before Delhi High Court. He wants to play to the gallery by making the same submissions…. Right to arrest a CM is no different from (that to arrest) an ordinary man.”

He added that Sarath Reddy’s donations to the BJP were irrelevant as the BJP was not involved in framing Delhi’s now-shelved liquor policy.

Delhi High Court on Thursday rejected a plea demanding Kejriwal’s resignation, saying this was in the domain of the executive and not the courts.