NEW DELHI, May 10: Fifty days after he was imprisoned on corruption charges in connection with the alleged Delhi liquor policy scam, the Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday evening walked out of the Tihar jail on the Supreme Court granted 21 days interim bail to enable him to campaign in the on-going Lok Sabha elections.
The Aam Aadmi Party’s leader’s release means he can now campaign for the AAP, and the INDIA bloc, in the ongoing election, in which Delhi’s seven seats will vote on May 25.
As he walked out of Tihar Jail’s Gate No 4, Mr Kejriwal was welcomed by a mob of flag-waving and slogan-shouting AAP workers, as well as his wife Sunita Kejriwal and senior leaders like Atishi and Saurabh Bhardwaj, who have emerged as the party’s public faces while the Chief Minister was in jail. Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann was also present.
In his first public comments after leaving jail, Mr Kejriwal thanked “all the judges of the top court” and, with one eye on the election in Delhi called on voters to “‘save the country for dictatorship.” “I want to thank all of you… you gave me your blessings. I want to thank the judges of the Supreme Court, it is because of them that I am in front of you. We have to save the country from dictatorship…”
Mr Kejriwal also attributed his release to Lord Hanuman, and said he planned to visit the Hanuman temple in Delhi’s Connaught Place on Saturday morning. He will be on bail till June 1 – the final phase of voting for the seven-stage election. He is to surrender by June 2. The court turned down pleas to extend his bail but said it would hear arguments for extended relief next week.’
(Manas Dasgupta)
