Senior leaders and workers of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) staged a demonstration outside Shaheedi Park in central Delhi on Saturday. Traffic in the area was disrupted for some time as the police detained around 25 AAP members and placed barricades to prevent the protesters from marching towards Deen Dayal Upadhyay (DDU) Marg. The detainees were released a few hours later.
DCP (Central) M. Harsha Vardhan said around 500 people were moving from Shaheedi Park towards DDU Marg, which houses the headquarters of AAP and the BJP, as well as the Rouse Avenue courts.
The protest was held a day after a court here remanded AAP national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in Enforcement Directorate (ED) custody till March 26, a day after the Central agency arrested him in connection with an excise policy-linked money laundering case.
AAP members had staged a demonstration in the area on Friday as well, following which prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC were imposed.
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, addressing the gathering of party supporters, expressed hope for Mr. Kejriwal’s early release, which, he said, would bring about a revolution in the country.
Earlier in the day, Mr. Mann, Delhi Ministers Atishi, Saurabh Bharadwaj and Kailash Gahlot, Mayor Shelly Oberoi and several AAP members gathered outside the Shaheedi Park, which was inaugurated by the CM in August last year and is dedicated to India’s freedom fighters, to commemorate the martyrdom of Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, and Rajguru.
“The BJP wants to bring dictatorship in the country. Sending Opposition leaders to jail is not freedom. Let us unite, or the country will be ruined,” the Punjab CM said.
“No law says that a Chief Minister sent to jail under a political vendetta needs to resign. He is in ED custody. He has not been proven guilty. Every AAP candidate and volunteer will be Kejriwal,” he added.
Mr. Bharadwaj thanked the Congress, Left parties and other members of the Indian National Developmental, Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), “who have stood together with Arvind Kejriwal since day one and are working to save democracy.”
