Arvind in jail, AAP quake hits Tihar

Kejriwal made his first appearance in the court on Wednesday as an accused under section 500 of IPC, which is a bailable offence. The AAP leader, however, refused to take the laid down legal recourse of signing a bond to assure the judge of his presence on future dates of hearing.

 Metropolitan Magistrate Gomati Manocha said that the purpose of seeking bail bond is only to secure the presence of the accused during the trial. ‘Though this is itself not a guarantee of the presence of the accused in the court but certainly deters the accused from violating the provision of bail and fleeing from justice, ‘ said the court.

 ‘You are representing AAP, we expect you to behave like an Aam Aadmi. Let the procedure be same for everyone. Rs 10,000 is not a huge amount. What is the problem in furnishing bail bond?’  the magistrate asked. To this Kejriwal said that he will not furnish the personal bond and he will prefer to go to jail than seek bail. He further argued for procedural change in such type of cases. ‘In all the cases the procedure should be that the accused be let off only on an oral undertaking,’ said Kejriwal.

 Senior advocate Pinki Anand, who appeared for Gadkari, opposed the contentions of defence counsel, saying there was no procedure in law to furnish undertaking and law should not vary for anyone including a former chief minister.

 ‘The accused in the present case cannot seek preferential treatment to be let off only on an oral undertaking in violation to settled procedure regarding bail,’ said the court.  The court said that as the accused has refused to furnish bail bond, this court is constrained to take the accused into the custody. 

 On 18 February Nitin Gadkari had filed a defamation case against Kejriwal for including his name in the list of corrupt politicians on 31 January. 

Meanwhile, chaotic scenes were witnessed outside the Tihar jail on Wednesday evening when clashes broke out between AAP supporters and Delhi Police. Around 70-80 workers including MLAs and other senior leaders were arrested from outside Tihar jail. Police have also imposed section 144 outside the jail premises. Senior leaders like Yogendra Yadav, Manish Sisodia were dragged by the police personnel. Delhi Police cordoned-off the area which was criticised by AAP leaders. ‘We were merely expressing our solidarity with Kejriwal. We were not causing any obstruction to the traffic or the security of Tihar,’ party leader Yogendra Yadav said.