India opposition members held after leader arrested

STORY: Dozens of opposition party members have been detained in New Delhi.

The Aam Aadmi Party members were detained on Friday (March 22) after protests erupted across India against the arrest of the AAP’s top leader.

Arvind Kejriwal was detained on Thursday (March 21) by India’s financial crime agency - in connection with corruption allegations relating to the city’s liquor policy.

The AAP, which rules Delhi and the nearby state of Punjab, has dismissed the allegations against him and says it is a politically motivated smear campaign.

The latest wave of detentions and protests erupted just weeks before a general election starts on April 19.

Kejriwal's arrest is a set back for the larger opposition alliance he heads, which aims to challenge the ruling BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

All the main leaders of his decade-old party are now in jail in connection with the liquor case.

India's main financial-crime fighting agency has investigated well over a hundred opposition politicians in the past decade, drawing criticism it has become a weapon used by Modi and his party to cull political opponents.

While India's opposition has been struggling to close the wide gap in opinion polls with Modi in the run up to the election, they maintain the arrests are politically motivated.

They have accused Modi of seeking to squeeze and weaken the opposition ahead of the election, which will run between April and June.

The federal government and the BJP deny political interference and say law-enforcement agencies are doing their job.