Arvind Kejriwal, chief minister of Delhi and one of the main opponents of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, walked out of prison to cheers on Friday, May 10, in New Delhi, after his release on bail on the orders of the Indian Supreme Court to be able to participate in the current legislative elections.
“We must save this country from dictatorship,” the opponent told more than a thousand supporters as he left Tihar prison, in the Indian capital. Mr. Kejriwal was detained in March, accused of financial crimes. Judges Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta granted him bail until June 1, the last day of a six-week election, according to an Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalist present in court.
“There is no doubt that serious accusations were made, but he was not convicted,” they argued in their judgment. “He has no criminal history. He does not pose a threat to society,” they say. Crowds immediately gathered outside the headquarters of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which Mr. Kejriwak co-founded in 2012, to celebrate his impending release by handing out sweets as required. custom.
“The Supreme Court has come to the rescue of our Constitution and our democracy facing an onslaught from the BJP,” the Bharatiya Janata Party (Indian People’s Party), the formation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, told journalists Atishi Marlena Singh , minister in Mr. Kejriwal’s government. His release was conditional on his undertaking not to make any public statements about the charges against him, not to interact with witnesses in the case and not to visit government offices in Delhi.
“Political conspiracy”
Mr Kejriwal’s government is accused of receiving bribes in the awarding of alcohol sales licenses to private companies. But according to his supporters, the arrest of Mr. Kejriwal, who denies the accusations against him, aims to sideline the prime minister’s opponents. One called the affair a “political conspiracy” orchestrated by the ruling Hindu nationalist party, the BJP.
Mr Kejriwal, Delhi’s chief minister for almost a decade, is one of several opposition leaders facing a criminal investigation. Like Rahul Gandhi, 53, who was briefly removed from Parliament last year after being found guilty of defamation.
On the other hand, the release on bail of Hemant Soren, former chief minister of the state of Jharkhand (East), arrested for corruption in February in a separate case, was refused Friday by the same two judges of the Supreme Court who granted it to Mr. Kejriwal. Rights activists and the opposition accuse Mr. Modi’s government of exploiting justice for political ends and worry about the shrinking democratic space in India.
