An AFP reporter on the scene saw that Arvind Kejriwal, the jailed chief minister of Delhi, was welcomed by jubilant spectators on Friday. Kejriwal had been granted bail by India’s highest court to campaign in the ongoing national election.
More than a thousand supporters heard Kejriwal declare, “We have to save this country from dictatorship,” outside Tihar Jail in New Delhi.
After spending weeks in detention, Arvind Kejriwal, the chief minister of the nation’s capital Delhi and a pivotal figure in the opposition alliance assembled to oppose Modi in the elections, was granted release on Friday.
His party described his detention as a “political conspiracy” carried out by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to discredit its opponents ahead of the election. He is one of numerous bloc leaders who are the subject of criminal investigations.
The day following his release, Kejriwal held a furious press conference in which he declared that the election result will decide whether or not India remained a democracy.
“I have come to beg 1.4 billion people to save my country,” he stated. “Save my country from this dictatorship.”
Additionally, Kejriwal personally accused the prime minister of using criminal investigations to attack his opponents.
“Modi has started a very dangerous mission,” he stated. “Modi will send all opposition leaders to jail.”
When Kejriwal’s administration liberalized alcohol sales in 2021 and gave up a sizable government stake in the industry, accusations of corruption were leveled against it.
The following year, the policy was reversed, but not before an investigation into the purportedly dishonest licensing process resulted in the incarceration of two prominent Kejriwal loyalists.
Following his detention, protests in favor of Kejriwal were staged in many other major Indian cities. Kejriwal refused to resign from his position.
On Friday evening, he was welcomed by almost a thousand jubilant admirers upon his release from Tihar Jail in the capital.
The 55-year-old Kejriwal was an outspoken opponent of corruption when she first took office and has served as chief minister for almost ten years.
The Enforcement Directorate, India’s financial crimes bureau, had repeatedly summoned him to be questioned as part of the investigation, but he had refused.
