Indian opposition leader Kejriwal returns to jail after vote ends

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The chief minister of India’s capital New Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal, surrendered to prison authorities on Sunday as the interim bail granted by the country’s top court in a corruption case ended, his party officials say.

Kejriwal, a firebrand politician who has been a vocal opponent of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was arrested by the federal financial crime-fighting agency in March in connection with alleged corruption in the awarding of liquor licenses.

Kejriwal has denied the allegations.

“I want to say to the people of Delhi that I am going to jail again, not because I have done a scam but because I have raised my voice against dictatorship,” says Kejriwal.

Last month the Supreme Court granted Kejriwal bail until June 1, the last day of India’s nationwide seven-phase vote, on condition he returned to pre-trial detention on June 2.

Kejriwal, is a former senior tax official who won the Ramon Magsaysay Award, often called Asia’s Nobel Prize, in 2006 for leading a right-to-information movement and helping the poor fight corruption.

He founded one of India’s newest parties more than a decade ago on an anti-corruption platform and quickly led it to national prominence.