Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal on May 21, 2014 sought to drum up drama and sympathy by refusing to furnish a bail bond of Rs. 10,000 in a defamation case filed by BJP leader Nitin Gadkari and chose instead to go to jail. In the evening, around 100 AAP supporters attempted to heighten the drama by staging a vociferous protest against the arrest outside Tihar Jail prompting Delhi Police to impose Section 144 in the area. Some AAP supporters were also arrested for violating the prohibitory orders. Kejriwal had included Gadkari in the party’s list of India’s most corrupt was sent to judicial custody by a trail court when he refused bail.
The court said Kejriwal can’t seek differential treatment to be let off on an oral undertaking in violation of the settled practice regarding bail. The court remanded him to custody till May 23 with the observation that Kejriwal’s stubbornness can’t be tolerated at the cost of throwing legal procedures to the winds, said Metropolitan Magistrate Gomati Manocha. The court reminded Kejriwal that the offence of defamation under section 500 of the IPC was bailable but despite this when Kejriwal refused to seek bail, the court ordered him to be taken into custody. AAP is set to challenge the court order on Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest. The Patiala House court on May 21, 2014, sent Kejriwal to two-day judicial custody in Tihar.
