A false quote has been attributed to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, in which he claims that during a courtroom exchange in a Delhi court, he questioned Additional Solicitor General Suryaprakash V Raju, sarcastically asking him whether he would like Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah would be arrested if he only stated that he paid them Rs 100 crore. BOOM learned that the viral exchange between Kejriwal and ASG SV Raju did not take place in the Delhi courtroom as claimed on social media.
Kejriwal was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on March 21, 2024 for his alleged connection with the liquor policy case. On March 28, Kejriwal was produced in person at the Rouse Avenue court in Delhi as his detention with the agency came to an end, with the Delhi High Court refusing to grant interim relief the day before. While addressing the court during a speech, Kejriwal elaborated on several issues related to the case. He alleged that there was a ‘political conspiracy’ behind his arrest and questioned whether the ED has sufficient grounds to arrest a sitting chief minister without a case being filed against him. Special CBI judge Kaveri Baweja has granted four days’ custody of Kejriwal to the ED, which will end on April 1.
The viral exchange was posted on Kejriwal : So if I say that I have given 100 crores to Modi and Amit Shah, are you going to arrest them based on my statement? Judge and ASG both remained silent”
Click here view, and here for an archive.
The same false claim was shared by other X-handles.
FACT CHECK
BOOM found that the viral court exchange claiming that Prime Minister Arvind Kejriwal asked Additional Solicitor General Raju whether he would arrest Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah if he stated that he had paid them Rs 100 crore is fake. Based on the responses stating that no exchange took place, we conducted a keyword search and found no such exchange reported by news outlets or credible media reports confirming the same.
BOOM then contacted Newslaundry reporter Tanishka Sodhi, who covered the legal proceedings. Sodhi confirmed that the viral exchange is fake. “There were several reporters in the courtroom and there’s no way we caught everything but this – so yeah, it’s definitely fake. Maybe it started as a joke, but I see a lot of people on Twitter are actually buying it,” Sodhi said . Press Trust of India reporter Awais Usmani confirmed to BOOM that the viral tweet was false and that no such thing occurred. Other reporters present at the hearing tweeted some messages also saying the exchange had not taken place, including Moneycontrol’s Thyagarajan Narendran and the BBC’s Umang Poddar.
I was in court and this never happened https://t.co/O6zescvcSE
— Thyagarajan Narendran (@thyagarajan_law) March 28, 2024
This exchange never took place. https://t.co/WmDXYAwtNz
— Umang Poddar (@UmangPod) March 28, 2024
The full 39-minute hearing can be read in the Newslaundry article, which details the arguments made during the hearing and the statements Kejriwal made during his speech.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by WhatsNew2Day staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)