New Delhi: Moments after Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal was arrested by the ED officials in connection with the Delhi excise policy-linked money laundering case, reports emerging on late Thursday evening suggested that Team AAP has approached the Supreme Court, seeking an urgent hearing in the case. The matter, however, was posted for hearing on 22 March.

Moments after reports of the AAP chief's arrest surfaced, party leader Atishi said, “Our legal team is heading to the residence of the Registrar of the Supreme Court, to ask for an urgent hearing”.

“We have moved the Supreme Court for quashing the arrest of Delhi CM @ArvindKejriwal, by [the] ED. We have asked for an urgent hearing by the Supreme Court tonight itself", Atishi wrote in a post on social media platform ‘X’.

Reacting strongly to the Delhi CM's arrest, Atishi had earlier said, “Arvind Kejriwal will continue as chief minister of Delhi, and if need be, he will run the government from inside the jail”. The BJP, however, demanded that Kejriwal step down as chief minister on moral grounds. Kejriwal had skipped nine summonses issued by the agency for questioning in the case, the latest being for Thursday, March 21. He has called these summonses "illegal".

The arrest, the first of a sitting chief minister, came hours after the Delhi High Court refused to grant protection to Kejriwal from any coercive action by the federal agency.

In a day of fast-paced developments, a 10-member ED team led by an additional director had reached his official residence on Flagstaff Road in Civil Lines in the national capital soon after the high court order, and carried out searches. He was arrested more than two hours after the ED team arrived at his residence.

The ED would produce the chief minister before a Delhi court on Friday and seek his custody for interrogation in the case, news agency PTI had reported, quoting officials.