Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal surrendered at the Tihar Prisons on Sunday as the interim bail granted to him by the Supreme Court expired.
The apex court had granted the interim bail of 21 days to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener in a money laundering case linked to the alleged Delhi excise policy scam.
The case is being probed by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED).
Before heading for the Tihar jail, the Delhi chief minister addressed fellow party leaders and members at the AAP office. He said he as a disciple of Shaheed Bhagat Singh, who embraced the gallows for the country’s independence, was going to jail to save the country.
He said that the way Bhagat Singh sacrificed his life for the nation he is also ready to be hanged for the sake of the nation. He did not know when he would be released but what could be done with him while in prison, but come what may he won’t bow down.
Kejriwal claimed that he was going back to jail not because he was involved in corruption but for raising his voice against “dictatorship”.
Claiming that he was fighting against the alleged dictatorship, he said the country cannot tolerate authoritarianism.
Kejriwal dismissed the exit polls predicting a landslide victory of the ruling BJP in the Lok Sabha elections as ‘fake’. Picking holes in the outcome of the exit polls, he pointed out that one of them gave 33 seats to the BJP in Rajasthan whereas there are only 25 Lok Sabha seats in the state.
The chief minister said there are several theories on why such allegedly fake exit polls have been done before the counting. According to one of them, it is to boost the share market as a lot of money has been invested in it. When it opens tomorrow, they can manage the investments accordingly.
Secondly, he said through the polls an atmosphere is being created to pressurise officials to do as they want as they were eventually coming to power once again.
Calling the entire exercise a mind game played in the name of exit polls, he urged his supporters, party leaders, and workers not to fall prey to these machinations and asked the counting agents to be vigilant during the counting till the last vote is counted irrespective of their candidate winning or losing.
He thanked the apex court for granting him the interim bail of 21 days to campaign for the elections and added that he did not waste even a minute of the said duration. He not only campaigned for his party candidates but also for various other parties travelling across Mumbai, Haryana, UP, Jharkhand, and Punjab.
“AAP is not important, for us, the country is important. I want to say to the people of Delhi that I am going to jail again not because I have done anything wrong but because I have raised my voice against dictatorship,” he added.
After visiting Hanuman Mandir in Connaught Place to seek the blessings of Lord Hanuman, he went to Raj Ghat and paid homage to Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi accompanied by his wife Sunita Kejriwal, and several other AAP leaders including Atishi, Saurabh Bharadwaj, Kailash Gahlot and others.
In an emotional message for the residents of the city, he asked them to take care of themselves as he would be worried about them while in prison. “If everyone is happy, their Kejriwal will also be happy,” he said.
Talking to a news agency, Delhi Minister Bharadwaj said since the Delhi CM has no idea how long he would be in jail, all those on the ground outside would have to protect the government, the party, and the country.