NEW DELHI: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal was sent to Tihar jail on Wednesday after a Delhi court ordered him to be taken into judicial custody as the former Delhi chief minister refused to furnish bail bond in a criminal defamation complaint filed against him by BJP leader Nitin Gadkari.
There was commotion outside Tihar jail in the evening as AAP activists staged a protest forcing the authorities to impose Section 144 outside the central prison.
Several AAP workers, including senior party leader Yogendra Yadav, were detained by police following the clash.
As the AAP supporters started gathering outside the jail to protest against the court’s decision, police started evicting them and Section 144, which prohibits mass gatherings, was also imposed outside the jail.
AAP leaders Rakhi Birla, Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh were also present outside the jail to lead the party’s supporters.
“If it is a crime to call a corrupt person corrupt, then send us to jail or hang us. This is dictatorship,” said Singh.
Yadav slammed the police’s move to evict them saying, “We are not doing anything illegal. Those who are indulging in corruption… are sitting in their drawing rooms and enjoying while those opposing corruption are being sent to jail. What kind of justice is this?
“This is police high-handedness. There should be women police to deal with women protesters,” he said.
Earlier in the day, the Patiala House court ordered Kejriwal to be take in to judicial custody.
“Take him into custody,” Metropolitan Magistrate Gomati Manocha ordered after the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and former Delhi chief minister repeatedly refused to furnish a personal bail bond of Rs 10,000 and a surety of like amount.
“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 magistrate said.
Kejriwal was summoned as an accused by the court in the defamation complaint in which Gadkari had alleged that he was defamed by the AAP leader, who had included his name in the party’s list of “India’s most corrupt”.
After the court pronounced its order, Kejriwal was taken into lock up inside the court premises amid tight security and later taken to Tihar jail.
Delhi : Chaos outside Tihar Jail, police evicts AAP supporters pic.twitter.com/bSgQ3xTinZ
— ANI (@ANI_news) May 21, 2014
The magistrate, in her three-page order, also observed that the procedure of courts cannot be “thrown to the winds” at the whims and fancies of the litigants.
Yeh toh tanashahi hai, kya acche din ka matlab yeh tanashahi hai ? : Manish Sisodia,AAP pic.twitter.com/gd9Coo5Qtw
— ANI (@ANI_news) May 21, 2014
“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.
“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.
Workers were dragged,beaten up,women workers were misbehaved with,this is police’s ‘gundagardi’ : Sanjay Singh,AAP pic.twitter.com/pnofE6ni3a
— ANI (@ANI_news) May 21, 2014
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.
