Kejriwal lodged in Tihar Jail

Former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal was sent to the Tihar Jail after a Delhi court Wednesday sent him to two-day judicial custody following his refusal to furnish a personal bail bond in a defamation case filed by BJP leader Nitin Gadkari.

Kejriwal, who was kept for more than half-an-hour inside a lockup in Patiala House court complex after the court ordered him to be taken into judicial custody, was taken to Tihar in a police van.

He reached Tihar around 6.30 p.m.

After his medical examination, he was shifted to ward number 14 of Tihar's jail number 4.

"Kejriwal has been kept in a 16X10-foot separate cell," said Tihar's spokesperson Sunil Gupta.

"He has been provided a blanket, two bedsheets and a mat to sleep on a floor of the jail while a bedding taken by his family for him has also been allowed," said Gupta.

Metropolitan Magistrate Gomati Manocha sent Kejriwal to judicial custody and fixed Friday as the next date of hearing when the Aam Aadmi Party leader refused to furnish a bail bond of Rs.10,000.

Kejriwal was summoned by the court for describing former Bharatiya Janata Party president as a "corrupt" person.

Gadkari's complaint said that Jan 31, when he was Delhi's chief minister, Kejriwal released a list of "India's most corrupt" people and it included his name.

Gadkari told the court that "false, baseless, scandalous, defamatory statements" by Kejriwal against him had lowered his dignity.