NEW DELHI: Former Delhi Chief Minister and jailed AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday accepted the Delhi High Court’s directive to furnish a personal bond for getting bail in a criminal defamation case filed against him by senior BJP leader Nitin Gadkari.
Senior advocate Shanti Bhushan and advocate Prashant Bhushan, who met Kejriwal in Tihar Jail on Tuesday to discuss the court’s suggestion, told a Bench of Justice Kailash Gambhir and Justice Sunita Gupta that he had agreed to the proposal and has signed a bond of `10,000.
The Bench asked Kejriwal’s lawyers to present the bond to the Magistrate concerned on Tuesday itself, adding that furnishing of the same would be subject to the final outcome of the legal issues raised by Kejriwal.
The legal issue raised by the Aam Aadmi Party chief, in his petition seeking his immediate release from jail, is whether bail bond is necessary in a summons case, when the accused appears and is accompanied by a lawyer.
The court also issued notice to Gadkari and the Delhi government and sought their responses on Kejriwal’s plea seeking his immediate release on the ground that his detention was illegal. The case has been posted to July 31, when the court will hear arguments on the maintainability of Kejriwal’s plea.
Earlier in the day, the court advised him to furnish a bond and said he can raise the legal issues once out of jail and advised him not to make it a prestige issue.
Later in the day, the court ordered for his release from jail after he furnished the bail bond.
Metropolitan Magistrate Gomati Manocha accepted the personal bond filed by Kejriwal’s counsel in compliance with the order passed by the High Court.