WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. is carefully following stories of the arrest of Indian opposition determine Arvind Kejriwal and encourages a good authorized course of, a State Department spokesperson mentioned on Monday after Germany’s response to the case sparked a protest from India.

Kejriwal, a nationwide opposition determine and chief minister of Delhi’s capital territory, was arrested by India’s monetary crime-fighting company on Thursday on corruption costs that his political celebration rejects, a month earlier than nationwide elections.

“We encourage a fair, transparent, and timely legal process for Chief Minister Kejriwal,” the U.S. spokesperson mentioned in response to an emailed question in regards to the case, through which India summoned a German envoy on Saturday to protest towards his authorities’s remarks in regards to the arrest.

Asked in regards to the arrest at a authorities press convention on Friday, Sebastian Fischer, spokesperson for Germany’s overseas workplace mentioned that like anybody else going through accusations, Kejriwal was entitled to a good and neutral trial.

“We assume and expect that the standards relating to independence of judiciary and basic democratic principles will also be applied in this case,” he mentioned.

New Delhi summoned the German embassy’s deputy chief of mission, Georg Enzweiler, “and conveyed India’s strong protest,” on the remarks, India’s overseas ministry mentioned on Saturday.

“We see such remarks as interfering in our judicial process and undermining the independence of our judiciary,” it mentioned in a press release. “Biased assumptions made on this account are most unwarranted.”

Asked about India’s protest to Germany, the State Department spokesperson mentioned: “We would refer you to the German Foreign Ministry for comment on their discussions with the Indian government.”

Washington has more and more come to see India as an vital strategic and financial associate in its effort to push again towards China’s rising energy worldwide.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s authorities has regularly proven itself delicate to human rights criticism, and rights advocates have accused U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration of placing strategic concerns above such points in its dealings with New Delhi.

New Delhi and Berlin additionally share good ties, and the 2 international locations have been coming nearer on strategic points, together with protection know-how.

India’s authorities and Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party deny any political interference within the case involving Kejriwal and different leaders of his Aam Aadmi Party.

India’s Washington embassy didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon the State Department’s response.

(Reporting by David Brunnstrom; further reporting by Kanishka Singh; enhancing by Jonathan Oatis)

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