Delhi State Chief Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday lashed out against the central government on the arrest of the city's health minister Satyendar Jain by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), saying the case is "completely fake and politically motivated".
The ED is a federal law enforcement and economic intelligence agency.
Kejriwal, who is also the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national leader, said he would have taken action against Jain himself if there had been any proof of his involvement in corrupt practices.
Talking to the reporters in the city, Kejriwal described the ED's action as politically motivated, while saying: “I have studied the case against Jain. It is completely fake and he is intentionally being implicated for political reasons."
"We have faith in the judiciary. Jain is following the path of truth, and he will come out clean," he added.
The ED arrested Jain on Monday in connection to a money laundering case filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against him and his family in August 2017.
According to the complaint lodged by the top probe agency CBI, Jain allegedly laundered INR 16.2 million ($208,604).
It was alleged that Jain and his family had set up four shell companies with no real business to launder INR 117.8 million (about $1.5 million) in 2011-12 and INR 46.3 million ($596,181) in 2015-16.
Last month, the ED provisionally froze these companies' real estate, which was worth INR 48.1 million ($619,219).
Soon after Jain was arrested on Monday, a war of words erupted between Delhi’s opposition parties – the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress, and the ruling party AAP.
The BJP and Congress raised the demand to sack Jain from the minister’s portfolio.
However, the AAP claims that Jain has been arrested in an eight-year-old "fake" case as he is the AAP's in-charge for the Himachal Pradesh state assembly polls, and the BJP is afraid of losing the upcoming elections there.