NEW DELHI: Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday surrendered at Tihar jail after paying obeisance at Mahatma Gandhi’s memorial at Rajghat and praying at the Hanuman Temple in Connaught Place. He also went to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) office and met with workers and party leaders.
The CM was flanked by his wife Sunita, Delhi ministers and other top AAP leaders throughout his ‘journey’ back to jail.
Sent to judicial custodyMoments after Kejriwal surrendered at Tihar jail after his Supreme Court-ordered interim bail came to an end, a Delhi court sent him to judicial custody till June 5.
The court noted that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) recently moved an application seeking judicial custody of Arvind Kejriwal. The application was pending as he was on interim bail.
After his surrender on Sunday, the application was taken by the Duty Judge of Rouse Avenue Court. Judge Sanjeev Aggarwal decided to send him to judicial custody till June 5.
Kejriwal was produced from jail via video conferencing.
‘Do not know when I will come out’, says KejriwalBefore surrendering, Kejriwal addressed party workers at the AAP HQ in Delhi.
“The Supreme Court granted me bail for 21 days to campaign for elections. I want to thank SC for that. Today, I am going to Tihar Jail again. I did not waste even a minute of these 21 days. I did not campaign only for AAP but for various parties. I want to say to the people of Delhi that I am going to jail again, not because I have done a scam but because I have raised my voice against dictatorship … PM Modi accepted this in front of the country that he does not have any evidence against me.”
“PM Modi said in an interview that I believe that there is no proof or recovery against Kejriwal because he is an experienced thief. Let’s assume that I am an experienced thief, you don’t have any proof or any recovery against me so you put me in jail without any proof?… He gave a message to the whole country that if I can put him in jail in a fake case, then what is your stand? I will arrest anyone and put them in jail. I am fighting against this dictatorship and our country cannot tolerate this kind of dictatorship,” he said at the party HQ.
Lashing out at the exit polls which have predicted a resounding victory for the NDA, Kejriwal said: “Take it in writing, all these exit polls are fake. One exit poll gave 33 seats to BJP in Rajasthan whereas there are only 25 seats there … The real issue is why they had to do a fake exit poll 3 days before the day of counting. There are several theories regarding this, one of them is that they are trying to manipulate the machines (EVMs).”
“I went to Connaught Place where I sought blessings of Lord Hanuman at the Hanuman Mandir. June 4 is also Tuesday and Lord Hanuman will destroy the dictators in our nation,” he added.
“Bhagat Singh said that when the power becomes a dictatorship, then jail becomes a responsibility … Bhagat Singh was hanged to free the country. This time when I am going to jail, I don’t know when I will come back … If Bhagat Singh was hanged, I am also ready to be hanged,” said the CM.
‘I will be worried about you’: KejriwalKejriwal was released from prison on May 10 on interim bail granted by the Supreme Court in a money laundering case linked to the alleged Delhi excise policy scam, to campaign in the Lok Sabha polls. The polls ended on June 1.
“On orders of the honourable Supreme Court, I came out from prison for election campaign for 21 days. Many thanks to the honourable Supreme Court,” he said in a post in Hindi on ‘X’.
“Today, I will go to Tihar and surrender. I will leave home at 3 pm. First, I will go to Rajghat and pay homage to Mahatma Gandhi. From there, I will go to Hanuman Temple in Connaught Place to seek blessings of Hanuman ji. And from there, I will go to the party office and meet with workers and party leaders. From there, I will leave for Tihar,” the chief minister said.
“All of you take care of yourselves. I will be worried about you. If you are happy then your Kejriwal will also be happy in jail. Jai Hind,” he added.
Plea hearing on June 5
With his three-week temporary bail for poll campaign ending, Kejriwal surrendered at Tihar jail as a CBI-ED court put off till June 5 its order on his plea seeking interim bail on medical grounds.
The CM had approached the CBI-ED court after the Supreme Court registry refused an urgent listing of his plea seeking seven-day extension of the interim bail in which he stated he needed time to undergo medical tests as he was losing weight and was having high ketone level.
On Saturday, Kejriwal had held a meeting of the AAP’s Political Affairs Committee at his residence before attending an INDIA bloc meeting at Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s home.
Prominent AAP leaders, including Cabinet minister Atishi, Rajya Sabha MPs Raghav Chadha and Sanjay Singh, and MLA Durgesh Pathak attended the PAC meeting, with media reports stating the CM emphasised the need to keep unity among the party leaders in his absence.
It was also emphasised that Kejriwal will remain CM, and his wife Sunita Kejriwal will continue to convey his messages to party leaders, volunteers and the people of Delhi, media reports said citing sources.
The Enforcement Directorate had opposed Kejriwal’s interim bail plea, arguing he campaigned throughout the elections, but “now when he has to surrender, he suddenly claims to be ill”.
Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva said the chief minister should stop his “illness drama” and go back to the jail if he has any respect for law.
The case being probed by the ED relates to alleged corruption and money laundering in the formulation and execution of the Delhi government’s now-scrapped excise policy for 2021-22.
(With inputs from agencies)