AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal outside the court in New Delhi on Wednesday. Photo: AFP
New Delhi: A Delhi lower court on Wednesday sent Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal to judicial custody after he declined to furnish a bail bond in connection with a defamation complaint filed against him by former Bharatiya Janata Party chief Nitin Gadkari.
The situation outside Tihar jail, where Kejriwal was sent, turned chaotic after his party workers clashed with police in the evening.
Several AAP workers, including senior party leader Yogendra Yadav, were detained by police following the clash.
Lawyer Rohit Singh, appearing for Kejriwal, along with fellow-AAP leader and lawyer Prashant Bhushan, said the former Delhi chief minister will not seek bail, in keeping with the party’s practice.
Instead, Kejriwal will give an undertaking to the court to cooperate and appear before it whenever there’s a hearing. He said no charges have been framed against Kejriwal yet.
The legal team may consider challenging the order, which had taken them by surprise, he added. Kejriwal said that he is ready to accept the consequences, Singh said.
Gadkari was among several Lok Sabha candidates in the 16th general election named by the AAP as corrupt. The party had published a list of candidates it said were corrupt and declared it would field their “best candidates” against them. The case will be heard next on 23 May.
Kejriwal has also been slapped with a defamation suit by Amit Sibal, son of outgoing Union minister Kapil Sibal, which is due for hearing on 24 May.
That case is over AAP’s claim, made in a press conference last year, that there was a conflict of interest surrounding the tax demands made by the government on telecom company Vodafone Group Plc, as Kapil Sibal was law minister while Amit Sibal was Vodafone’s lawyer in the Supreme Court.
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