New Delhi, Sep 13 (PTI) Left parties and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) on Friday welcomed the Supreme Court order granting bail to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, and accused the BJP government of misusing cental agencies to target opposition leaders.
While welcoming the bail order, Communist Party of India General Secretary D Raja said it remains to be seen how the bail conditions can be upheld constitutionally.
"We welcome the bail granted to Mr Kejriwal. He is an elected chief minister of Delhi. How the judicial process will move further, we will have to wait and see," Raja said.
"There are some conditions, he should not go to the chief minister's office, he should not file any official files unless the LG agrees... So how these conditions can be upheld constitutionally we will have to wait and see," said Raja.
"As of now he has been granted bail, our party welcomes it," he said.
In a post on X, the CPI(M) said, "We welcome the Supreme Court order to grant bail to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Yet again, politically motivated attacks on opposition leaders by the Modi govt using central agencies have been exposed."
CPI(M) leader Hannan Mollah said central agencies are being used to target opposition leaders.
"This is BJP's policy to destroy the opposition by using government machinery. They don't have anything against Arvind Kejriwal; despite this, he has been kept in jail," he said.
"The only reason behind all this is that the BJP wants to capture Delhi through the Lieutenant Governor, who, from day one, has been undermining the Delhi administration," he said.
RJD MP Manoj Jha accused the centre of misusing government agencies.
"It was bound to happen. We have seen what the high court said in Hemant Soren case. In the last 10 years, a culture has been developed to target political opponents using ED, CBI, I-T using fake, fictitious cases. You (Centre) have made these agencies a tool for getting your political equations right," said Jha.
The Supreme Court on Friday granted bail to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the corruption case lodged by the CBI in connection with the excise policy 'scam', saying prolonged incarceration amounts to unjust deprivation of liberty.
The top court directed Kejriwal not to make any public comment on the merits of the case and added that terms and conditions as imposed in the ED case would also be applicable here.
The top court, while granting him bail in the ED case, had said that Kejriwal cannot visit his office or the Delhi Secretariat and not sign any official file unless absolutely necessary to obtain the Lieutenant Governor's sanction.