AAP MP Sanjay Singh walks out of jail, meets Sunita Kejriwal
New Delhi, Apr 3: A day after being granted bail by the Supreme Court in the Delhi excise case, AAP MP Sanjay Singh walked out of Tihar jail on Wednesday and said it was not the time to celebrate but struggle hoping that other jailed party leaders will also come out soon.
After his release, Singh left for Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's residence where he met his wife Sunita Kejriwal.
In a video shared by the Aam Aadmi Party, Singh is seen touching the feet of Sunita Kejriwal when he met her.
Singh had been lodged in the high-security prison here since October 13, 2023. He came out at 8.11 pm through the gate number three.
Jail officials said he was released after the completion of bail procedure.
A large number of AAP supporters assembled outside the jail and raised the slogans of "dekho dekho kaun aaya, sher aaya, sher aaya" and "Sanjay Singh zinadabad".
Wearing white kurta-pajama with brown-colour jacket, the Rajya Sabha member walked out of the jail and was garlanded amidst sloganeering by AAP workers. The rose petals were also showered on him by party workers.
There was a heavy security presence outside the jail in view of his release. Singh climbed atop his vehicle as supporters jostled to greet him.
"Arvind Kejriwal and our leaders have been put behind bars and I am fully confident that 'ye jail ke taale tutenge hamare sare neta chutenge (The locks of jail will break and all our leaders will come out).
"I want to say that this is not the time to celebrate, but struggle," Singh said while addressing party supporters outside the jail.
Delhi cabinet minister Saurabh Bharadwaj and AAP MLA Durgesh Pathak were also present outside the jail.
Bharadwaj said that the party will continue to struggle.
"Sanjay Singh's words that the time is for struggle not celebrations because leaders of the party including Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain are still in jail. Our three leaders are in jail so the party will continue to struggle," he told reporters.
Soon after Singh was released, the AAP in a post in Hindi said, "The lion broke the chains of the dictator and came out."
Later, speaking to reporters, AAP leader Atishi said, "This is the victory of truth. The investigation into the fake excise case has been going on for the last two years. ED and CBI have put hundreds of their officers on the job to find something in this case and conducted raids, but they have not found a single penny of corruption from any leader of the Aam Aadmi Party."
She said that with the release of Sanjay Singh from Tihar jail, the AAP's honesty has come out before the entire country.
The Supreme Court had asked the ED again and again where is the money trail, but the agency did not have any reply that's why it did not oppose Singh's bail plea, the AAP leader said.
Earlier, Singh was admitted to the ILBS Hospital in Vasant Kunj. Around 1.30 pm, after being discharged from the hospital, he was taken back to Tihar jail for completing the bail formalities.
On Tuesday, Singh had gone to ILBS for a regular checkup but got admitted. He got the news of his bail when he was in the hospital.
His wife Anita Singh has said that they will not celebrate his release as other leaders of the AAP, including Kejriwal, former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia and former minister Satyendar Jain, are still in jail.
यह जश्न का नहीं, जंग का समय है. सभी देशभक्त कार्यकर्ता संघर्ष के लिए तैयार रहें. हमारे क्रांतिकारी साथी @ArvindKejriwal, @msisodia, और @SatyendarJain जेल में हैं. जेल के ताले टूटेंगे, हमारे साथी छूटेंगे!
— Sanjay Singh AAP (@SanjayAzadSln) April 3, 2024
अरविन्द केजरीवाल ज़िन्दाबाद!!!
आम आदमी पार्टी ज़िन्दाबाद!!!
VIDEO | AAP leader Sanjay Singh walks out of Tihar Jail in Delhi. Arrested in October 2023, Singh was granted bail by the Supreme Court on Tuesday in a money laundering case linked to the excise policy case. pic.twitter.com/F2bkSpH0Mm
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) April 3, 2024
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I'm not anti-business, I'm anti-monopoly: Rahul Gandhi
New Delhi (PTI): Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Thursday asserted that he was not "anti-business" as being projected by the BJP but was "anti-monopoly" and "anti-creating oligopolies".
His remarks came a day after he penned an opinion piece in The Indian Express in which he said the original East India Company wound up over 150 years ago but the raw fear it then generated is back with a new breed of monopolists having taken its place.
Gandhi, however, had asserted that a "new deal for progressive Indian business is an idea whose time has come".
In a video posted on X on Thursday, Gandhi said, "I want to make something absolutely clear, I have been projected by my opponents in the BJP to be anti-business. I am not anti-business in the least, I am anti-monopoly, I am anti-creating oligopolies, I am anti-domination of business by one or 2 or 5 people."
"I started my career as a management consultant and I understand the type of things that are required for a business to succeed. So I just want to repeat, I am not anti-business, I am anti-monopoly," the former Congress chief said.
In his post accompanying the video, Gandhi said, "I am pro-Jobs, pro-Business, pro-Innovation, pro-Competition. I am anti-Monopoly."
"Our economy will thrive when there is free and fair space for all businesses," Gandhi asserted.
In his article, Gandhi had said India was silenced by the East India Company and it was silenced not by its business prowess, but by its chokehold.
The Company choked India by partnering with, bribing, and threatening more pliant maharajas and nawabs, he pointed out.
"It controlled our banking, bureaucratic, and information networks. We didn't lose our freedom to another nation; we lost it to a monopolistic corporation that ran a coercive apparatus," he said.
The original East India Company wound up over 150 years ago, but the raw fear it then generated is back, he claimed.
A new breed of monopolists has taken its place, amassing colossal wealth, even as India has become far more unequal and unfair for everybody else, Gandhi had said.
The BJP had slammed Gandhi for making "baseless accusations" against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and asked him to examine facts before jumping to conclusions.
Hitting back at the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, the BJP wrote on X: "Another baseless accusation against the Modi government through the so-called 'match-fixing monopoly groups versus fair-play businesses' is simply misleading."
"Dear Baalak Buddhi, do not jump to conclusions without examining facts," the saffron party said in a veiled reference to Gandhi.
