The chief minister of India’s capital New Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal, surrendered to prison authorities on Sunday as the interim bail granted by the country’s top court in a corruption case ended, his party officials said.
Kejriwal, a firebrand politician who has been a vocal opponent of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was arrested by the federal financial crime-fighting agency in March in connection with alleged corruption in the awarding of liquor licences.
Kejriwal has denied the allegations.
Last month the Supreme Court granted Kejriwal bail until June 1, the last day of India’s nationwide seven-phase vote, on condition he returned to pre-trial detention on June 2.
“I was given a 21-day (relief) by the Supreme Court. These 21 days were unforgettable,” he said before returning to jail. “I did not waste even a minute. I campaigned to save the country,” he said.
“When power becomes dictatorship, then jail becomes a responsibility,” said Kejriwal, who promised to continue “fighting” from behind bars.
“I don’t know when I will return,” he told supporters in an emotional departure speech at his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) headquarters. “I don’t know what they will do to me...every drop of my blood is for the country.”
Political commentators have said Kejriwal’s rallies gave fresh impetus to the opposition parties who have formed an alliance to oppose to Modi’s ruling party.
Results of the national elections will be declared tomorrow.
Kejriwal, is a former senior tax official who won the Ramon Magsaysay Award, often called Asia’s Nobel Prize, in 2006 for leading a right-to-information movement and helping the poor fight corruption.
He founded one of India’s newest parties more than a decade ago on an anti-corruption platform and quickly led it to national prominence. Kejriwal is among several opposition leaders under criminal investigation, with colleagues describing his arrest the month before the general elections began in April as a “political conspiracy” orchestrated by Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).