New Delhi, India—Arvind Kejriwal, Yogendra Yadav and other supporters of the Aam Aadmi Party have remained in police custody. Kejriwal was arrested yesterday and sent to Tihar jail till May 23 after he refused to furnish bail bond in a criminal defamation complaint lodged against him by BJP’s former president Nitin Gadkari. Yogendra Yadav and others were detained after they protested peacefully outside Tihar Jail.
Metropolitan Magistrate Gomati Manocha issued the order of taking the AAP leader into custody. He said, “In these circumstances as the accused has refused to furnish bail bond or even personal bond without surety, this court is constrained to take the accused into custody. Let the accused be sent to judicial custody and be produced before the court on May 23”.
The BJP’s senior leader had alleged in the complaint that he was defamed by the AAP leader by including his name in the list of “India’s most corrupt”. “The court cannot act as a mute spectator when a particular litigant intentionally seeks to violate the procedure established by law. This case cannot be dealt with any differently than any other criminal cases, where the courts insist on furnishing bail bond/personal bond to secure the presence of the accused persons”, said the Magistrate. “The accused in the present case cannot seek differential treatment to be let off only on an oral undertaking in violation/divergence to the settled practice/procedure regarding bail,” the court said.
The court, in its order, also said that this was not a case where the accused is unable to furnish bail bond due to financial inability. “The accused is just adamant to not furnish bail bond or even a personal bond for his appearance before the court,” it said.
