Kejriwal released from custody on furnishing personal bond (Third Lead)

Former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal was Tuesday released from Tihar jail here after a court ordered his release from judicial custody in a defamation case.

Kejriwal was received by Aam Aadmi Party leaders Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh and Ashutosh along with hundreds of party workers outside the jail's gate No.1 in the evening.

He was sent to judicial custody May 21 and was lodged in a 16-by-10-feet separate cell of ward No.14 in jail No.4.

Earlier Tuesday, Metropolitan Magistrate Gomati Manocha allowed Kejriwal to be released on bail after his counsel told the court that he would furnish a personal bond.

A party leader told IANS that Kejriwal was in good health and he directly went home.

Kejriwal agreed to furnish the bond after the Delhi High Court asked him "not to make it a prestige issue".

A division bench of Justice Kailash Gambhir and Justice Sunita Gupta asked advocates Shanti Bhushan and Prashant Bhushan, appearing for Kejriwal, to file the personal bond before the concerned magistrate.

Prashant Bhushan informed the court that Kejriwal agreed to file the personal bond and produced a bond signed by the AAP chief.

In the morning, the high court suggested that Kejriwal, who had initially refused to furnish the bail bond in the trial court, seek bail and allowed the Bhushans to meet him in jail.

"Everything can't be an exception for this man," the bench remarked.

Kejriwal Monday moved a habeas corpus petition for his immediate release, saying he has been "illegally" sent to judicial custody on a "completely wrong premise of law" by the court's orders of May 21 and 23.

He challenged a trial court order sending him to judicial custody till June 6 after he refused to furnish a personal bond in a defamation case filed by BJP leader Nitin Gadkari, now a cabinet minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government.

The high court also issued notice to Gadkari and the Delhi government on the plea and sought their response within three weeks.

The court Tuesday also posted the matter for July 31.

"Kejriwal has been illegally sent to judicial custody till June 6 for refusing to furnish the bail bond in a case on a private complaint even though it was not mandatory and he was ready to give a written undertaking," the plea said.

It said that in at least four different cases, such written undertakings were accepted by courts.