Arvind Kejriwal to be back in jail on Sunday as court puts off decision on interim bail

Arvind Kejriwal. Pic/PTI

With his three-week temporary bail for poll campaign ending, AAP convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will be back in Tihar Jail on Sunday as a court here put off till June 5 its order on his plea seeking interim bail on medical grounds. Sources in the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) said on Saturday that on June 2 the chief minister is likely to visit Mahatma Gandhi's memorial at the Raj Ghat, the party office at the DDU Marg and a temple before heading to the Tihar Jail around 3 pm.

A day before his scheduled surrender, Kejriwal on Saturday 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 sources saying the chief minister emphasised the need to keep unity among the party leaders in his absence. It was also emphasised that Kejriwal will remain chief minister, and his wife Sunita Kejriwal will continue to covey his messages to party leaders, volunteers and the people of Delhi, the sources said. Kejriwal was released from the jail on May 10 on interim bail granted by the Supreme Court for campaigning in the Lok Sabha polls. The polls ended on June 1. Kejriwal said on Friday that he will leave around 3 PM on June 2 to surrender before the jail authorities.

The chief minister had earlier moved the Supreme Court seeking a seven-day extension of the interim bail granted by it in the money laundering case linked to alleged excise policy scam. However, the SC registry on Wednesday refused an urgent listing of his plea in which he had pleaded he needed time to undergo medical tests as he was losing weight and was having high ketone level. He then moved the special CBI-ED court seeking interim bail on medical grounds. Hearing his plea on Saturday, the court of special judge Kaveri Baweja reserved for June 5 its order his application. The court observed that the plea was for interim bail on medical grounds and not for the extension of the interim bail granted by the SC. The Enforcement Directorate opposed his interim bail plea, arguing he campaigned throughout the elections, but "now when he has to surrender, he suddenly claims to be ill".

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. Kejriwal has asked people not to be sad if anything happens to him in jail. He also asserted he was proud of going to jail to save the country from "dictatorship", saying he did not know how long will he remain behind the bars this time. He also appealed to the people of Delhi to pray for his elderly parents. Meanwhile, 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. It is regrettable to see Kejriwal campaigning after getting bail in a healthy condition and now claiming to be seriously ill and seeking bail on medical ground, he said.

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