NEW DELHI: The day after former Delhi chief minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener Arvind Kejriwal was discharged in the excise policy case by a court, he visited the Hanuman Mandir at Connaught Place on Saturday.
Kejriwal was accompanied by former Deputy CM Manish Sisodia, Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh and Durgesh Pathak to the temple.
Meanwhile, Delhi Law Minister Kapil Mishra accused Kejriwal of “overacting” after the court granted him relief. Mishra said that Kejriwal resorted to similar “dramas” even when he was in power.
Despite serious questions raised by the High Court and the Supreme Court of India, Kejriwal “kept roaming with a medal of truth” and was celebrating the lower court’s verdict, he said. “Is it not true that when the excise case came up against Kejriwal, the liquor policy was withdrawn? If the policy was based on honesty, why was it taken back?” Mishra said. “The biggest justice happens in the people’s court, and voters did not elect the Aam Aadmi Party government last year,” he added.
Senior AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj said that the ruling party was claiming the order was from a lower court, with higher courts still available, but “the highest court is that of Lord Hanuman, from whom we have received blessings.”
Bharadwaj said the party’s national leadership would gather at Jantar Mantar on Sunday, where Kejriwal would address the gathering and outline the way forward.
A Delhi court on Friday discharged Kejriwal, Sisodia, and 21 others in the case linked to the now-scrapped excise policy, a development that had triggered political controversy and contributed to the collapse of the AAP government in the national capital.
Among those discharged was Telangana Jagruthi president K Kavitha, whose name had figured prominently during the investigation.