New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor Arvind Kejriwal reached the party office with his family and ministers ahead of his surrender at Tihar jail in connection with the liquor excise policy-linked money laundering case. He also addressed party workers in the party office.
He said that nothing was recovered from his house still put into the jail. He instructed the party workers and polling agents to be vigilant and stay put till the end while the counting goes on.
He reached the party office after paying obeisance at the Hanumal Temple at Connaught Place. Kejriwal was given interim bail on the orders of the Supreme Court on May 10 and was ordered to surrender on June 2.
Kejriwal was accompanied by Delhi ministers Atishi, Saurabh Bharadwaj, Kailash Gahlot and other AAP leaders. Before that, he also visited Rajghat and paid tribute to Mahatma Gandhi.
"I came out for election campaigning for 21 days on the orders of the Supreme Court. I am very grateful to the Supreme Court. Today I will surrender by going to Tihar. I will leave my home at 3 pm. First I will go to Rajghat and pay tribute to Mahatma Gandhi. From there, I will go to the Hanuman temple in Connaught Place to seek the blessings of Lord Hanuman. After that, I will go to the party office and meet all the workers and party leaders. From there, I will again leave for Tihar," he said in a post on X, adding that he would be happy in prison if people were happy.
This comes as a court in Delhi has reserved its decision on an application for interim bail filed by Kejriwal. Special Judge Kaveri Baweja reserved the order, observing that the application was for grant of interim bail on medical grounds and not for the extension of the interim bail granted by the Supreme Court. Kejriwal's interim relief granted by the apex court ends on June 1.
Sanjay Singh addresses the workers
AAP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh also addressed the workers and said that each and every worker of the AAP and the entire nation knows that Arvind Kejriwal is being punished because he is the first CM after Independence who has worked for the public and Delhiites.
SC refuses urgent listing on Kejriwal's plea
Earlier on Wednesday, the Supreme Court registry refused the urgent listing of Kejriwal's plea seeking an extension of his interim bail by seven days for undergoing certain medical tests, saying since he was given liberty to move the trial court for regular bail, the plea was not maintainable. The AAP leader had sought an extension of his interim bail to undergo a host of medical tests, including a PET-CT scan, in view of "sudden and unexplained weight loss coupled with high ketone levels", which are indicative of kidney, serious cardiac ailments and even cancer.
The top court had on May 10 granted 21-day interim bail to the chief minister to enable him to campaign during the Lok Sabha polls. It had directed him to surrender on June 2, a day after the last phase of the seven-phase poll concluded. After being released from jail on May 10, Kejriwal has been involved in campaigning for the I.N.D.I.A bloc for the ongoing Lok Sabha polls.
Why was Kejriwal arrested?
It is pertinent to mention here that Kejriwal was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in an excise policy case on March 21, days after the election schedule for the general elections was announced. The matter relates to alleged corruption and money laundering in the formulation and execution of the Delhi government's now-scrapped excise policy for 2021-22. It is alleged that the Delhi government's excise policy for 2021-22 to grant licences to liquor traders allowed cartelisation and favoured certain dealers who had allegedly paid bribes for it, a charge repeatedly refuted by the AAP.
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