Arvind Kejriwal Surrenders At Tihar Jail As Bail Period Ends, Sent To Judicial Custody Till June 5

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday surrendered at Tihar Jail after his interim bail came to an end on June 2. Kejriwal was granted interim bail by the Supreme Court to campaign for the Lok Sabha elections on May 10 following his arrest in connection to the now-scrapped Delhi liquor policy scam case. He has been sent to judicial custody till June 5.

Delhi minister Gopal Rai told news agency ANI that the Delhi Chief Minister surrendered at Tihar Jail. “Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal was out on bail granted by the Supreme Court for 21 days. He has gone back to jail and I hope that after June 4, once the dictatorship ends, he will come out soon. The entire country is raising questions on the exit poll. The result will come on June 4,” Rai said.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo said that the 21 days he was out on bail and which he spent campaigning are ‘unforgettable’. “I am not going to jail because I am corrupt. I am going to jail because I am protesting against dictatorship,” Kejriwal said in a speech to party workers at party headquarters in New Delhi before surrendering.

“I do not know when I will return once I go to jail. I do not know what they will do with me. Every moment of my life and every drop of my blood is dedicated to the service of this nation,” Kejriwal said.

He also paid tribute to Mahatma Gandhi at the Raj Ghat on Sunday. Later he visited the Hanuman Temple in Connaught Place.

He also said he remains confident ahead of the June 4 Lok Sabha election results. The AAP supremo dismissed the exit polls and called them false. “Exit polls for 2024 Lok Sabha Elections were released yesterday. All these exit polls are fake,” Kejriwal said.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) named Arvind Kejriwal and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) as accused in the case and have booked them under various provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The ED told Rouse Avenue Court in Delhi on Tuesday that Kejriwal is the “kingpin” and the “key conspirator” in the excise policy case.

The case stems from a report presented by Delhi Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar to Lieutenant Governor (LG) Vinai Kumar Saxena in July 2022. The report highlighted purported procedural shortcomings in the development of the policy and outlined cases where “arbitrary and unilateral decisions” were made by former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, who was also the then-excise minister. These decisions led to “financial losses to the exchequer” amounting to over Rs 580 crore.

The report alleged that kickbacks received by the AAP Delhi government and AAP leaders from alcohol businesses influenced the Assembly elections in Punjab and Goa in early 2022, leading to the AAP forming the government in Punjab. The report said that the owners and operators of the alcohol business received preferential treatment in the form of discounts and extensions in licence fee, waiver on penalties and relief due to disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

AAP leaders Satyendra Jain, Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader K Kavitha have been arrested in the case.

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