Indian court suspends bail granted to opposition leader Kejriwal in graft case

NEW DELHI – An Indian court on June 21 suspended a lower court’s order granting bail to opposition leader and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in a graft case, extending his pre-trial detention at least until next week.

Kejriwal is a fierce critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a former anti-corruption crusader whose decade-old Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) quickly rose to mainstream politics, although its clout is relatively small compared with that of older opposition parties.

He was arrested by India’s financial crime-fighting agency in March, weeks before national elections, on corruption allegations relating to Delhi’s liquor policy and was granted bail by a city court on June 20.

He has denied the allegations and termed them politically motivated.

The agency challenged the bail order in the Delhi High Court on the morning of June 21, arguing that the lower court had not considered documents it submitted and had not given it adequate opportunity to oppose the bail.

Reserving the order for “two to three days”, the High Court said on the evening of June 21: “Till pronouncement, the operation of the impugned order shall remain stayed (suspended).”

In May, India’s top court granted Kejriwal three weeks’ temporary bail to campaign in the elections, which concluded earlier in June, and he returned to prison on June 2.

His AAP is a member of the opposition India bloc, which defied predictions to deny an outright majority to Mr Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party in the general election, forcing the Prime Minister to form his first coalition government with support from fickle regional allies.

However, the AAP itself failed to make any significant gains in Delhi and the northern state of Punjab, where it also forms the government. REUTERS