©Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Supporters of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) protest against the arrest of the party’s top leader and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in New Delhi, India, March 23, 2024. REUTERS/Sharafat Ali/File Photo
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States is closely following reports of the arrest of Indian opposition leader Arvind Kejriwal and encourages a fair legal process, a State Department spokeswoman said on Monday after Germany’s reaction to the case has triggered a protest from India.
Kejriwal, a national opposition figure and chief minister of the capital territory of Delhi, was arrested Thursday by India’s financial crime agency on corruption charges that his political party denies, a month before elections national.
“We encourage a fair, transparent and timely legal process for Prime Minister Kejriwal,” the US spokesperson said in response to an emailed question about the case, in which India summoned a German envoy on Saturday to protest the his government’s comments on the arrest. .
Asked about the arrest at a government news conference on Friday, Sebastian Fischer, a spokesman for the German Foreign Ministry, said that, like anyone else accused, Kejriwal has the right to a fair and impartial trial.
“We assume and expect that standards relating to judicial independence and fundamental democratic principles will be applied in this case too,” he said.
New Delhi summoned the German embassy’s deputy chief of mission, Georg Enzweiler, “and expressed India’s strong protest,” India’s foreign ministry said on Saturday.
“We view such remarks as an interference in our judicial process and a threat to the independence of our judiciary,” it said in a statement. “The biased assumptions made on this topic are very unwarranted.”
Asked about India’s protest against Germany, the State Department spokesperson said: “We will refer it to the German Foreign Ministry for comment on their discussions with the Indian government.”
Washington has increasingly come to see India as an important strategic and economic partner in its effort to counter China’s growing power globally.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has often shown itself sensitive to criticism over human rights, and rights advocates have accused US President Joe Biden’s administration of putting strategic considerations ahead of such issues in its dealings with New Delhi.
New Delhi and Berlin also share good ties and the two countries have become closer on strategic issues, including defense technology.
The Indian government and Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party deny any political interference in the case involving Kejriwal and other leaders of his Aam Aadmi Party.
The Indian embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the State Department’s response.