AAP to challenge Magistrate's order in higher court

Says issue raised by Kejriwal poses a serious question mark on the country's legal system

The Aam Aadmi Party has decided to challenge the order of the Metropolitan Magistrate, who sent its leader Arvind Kejriwal to judicial custody for not furnishing a bond in a defamation case, in a higher court.

"The AAP has decided to challenge the erroneous order of the learned Metropolitan Magistrate, who sent Kejriwal to judicial custody in the Tihar Jail despite the fact that he was ready to give an undertaking to ensure his presence on all dates of hearing in the case of criminal defamation filed by the former BJP President Nitin Gadkari against him," the party said in a statement.

AAP said that Kejriwal on Saturday spent his third day in the Tihar Jail because of the principled stand taken by him on the issue of political battles being fought in courts of law. He will be in judicial custody until June 6.

Party volunteers have been asked to distribute Kejriwal's letter written by him from the Tihar jail to households in Delhi.

"Kejriwal's fight is not merely confined to a legal question of whether an individual summoned in a case of criminal defamation should be subjected to furnishing a bail bond, but it is for the rights of thousands of poor and helpless people languishing in jails due to their inability to furnish such bonds.

"The issue raised by Kejriwal poses a serious question mark on the country's legal system that whether people who cannot furnish surety bonds will be allowed to suffer in jails merely on technical grounds, even if they have committed no crime," the party said.

It added that such "mechanical procedures" harass the poor and helpless, these procedures also consume a lot of time of the courts in unnecessary formalities.