New York:
After India summoned a senior US diplomat to protest comments on the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Washington stressed on Wednesday that the country encourages fair, transparent and timely legal processes and “we don’t think anyone would object to that.” must make”.
“We continue to closely monitor these actions, including the arrest of Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal,” said US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller.
Miller was responding to a question during the State Department briefing on India, which called Acting Deputy Chief of Mission Gloria Berbena to New Delhi earlier in the day, and on the freezing of Congress party bank accounts.
“We are also aware of the Congress party’s allegations that tax authorities have frozen some of their bank accounts in a manner that makes it difficult to campaign effectively in the upcoming elections. And we encourage fair, transparent, and timely legal processes for each of these issues.
“Regarding your first question, I’m not going to talk about private diplomatic conversations, but what we have said publicly is what I just said from here, which is that we encourage fair, transparent and timely legal processes. I don’t think anyone should object to that. We will make the same clear privately,” Miller said.
State Department officials summoned Acting Deputy Chief of Mission Gloria Berbena to her office in Delhi’s South Block and lodged a strong protest against a US State Department official’s comments on Mr Kejriwal’s arrest .
The meeting lasted more than 30 minutes.
Reports suggested that a US State Department official had said Washington was “encouraging a fair, transparent and timely legal process for Prime Minister Kejriwal”.
The Enforcement Directorate has arrested Mr Kejriwal in a money laundering case related to the excise policy ‘scam’.
The case pertains to alleged corruption and money laundering in the formulation and implementation of the Delhi government’s excise policy for 2021-2022, which was later scrapped.
Earlier, the State Department said Delhi strongly objects to comments made by the US State Department spokesperson on certain legal proceedings in India.
“In diplomacy, states are expected to respect the sovereignty and internal affairs of others. This responsibility applies even more in the case of fellow democracies. Otherwise, it could ultimately set unhealthy precedents,” the ministry said.
“India’s legal processes are based on an independent judiciary committed to objective and timely results. It is baseless to criticize this,” the MEA said.
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