Kejriwal surrenders himself at Tihar jail, calls exit polls fake

A court on Sunday sent Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to judicial custody till June 5 in connection with the money laundering case linked to the alleged excise policy scam.

Kejriwal, earlier on Sunday, surrendered at Tihar Jail upon expiry of the 21-day interim bail period granted by the Supreme Court.

Kejriwal was ordered to be released on interim bail until June 1 in view of the general elections. The apex court had directed him to surrender back in Tihar Jail on June 2.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on May 20 moved an application before the special court seeking a 14-day extension of judicial custody of the AAP supremo upon the expiry of the SC interim bail order.

Before surrendering at Tihar prison, Kejriwal on Sunday called the Lok Sabha election exit poll results fake.

The Chief Minister, along with other senior leaders, including Sanjay Singh, Gopal Rai, Atishi, Raghav Chadha, Saurabh Bharadwaj and his wife Sunita, visited Rajghat and Hanuman Temple in Connaught Place.

Kejriwal also visited party headquarters along with the leaders in the national capital and met MPs and MLAs.

"These 21 days have been very eventful for me. I did not waste a single minute. I campaigned day and night, 24 hours, to save the country. I campaigned for all parties," he said while addressing the party members.

"I want to tell the people of Delhi, your son is going back to jail, not because I committed any corruption, but because I dared to raise my voice against tyranny. The best part of this campaign was that Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself admitted in front of the whole country that there is no evidence against me," said Kejriwal.

On a related note, a Delhi court on Saturday reserved its order on the interim bail plea of Kejriwal, who is seeking seven days' bail on medical grounds in the excise policy case.

Special Judge Kaveri Baweja of Rouse Avenue Court reserved the verdict, set to be announced on June 5.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convenor's counsel cited medical reasons for the bail request.

Last week, the Supreme Court registry had refused to accept the application moved by the AAP leader seeking a seven-day extension of interim bail to undergo medical examinations, including a PET-CT scan.

The registry said that the top court had already reserved its verdict on Kejriwal's petition challenging his arrest in the excise policy case and the application seeking a 7-day extension has no relation to the main petition.

As the SC had allowed him to move the trial court to obtain regular bail, the application is not maintainable, it added.

Indo-Asian News Service