Jaitley accompanied by Sushma Swaraj, Ananth Kumar and Shanta Kumar emerged out of the hotel at Kathua where they were lodged Tuesday evening after their arrest.
Talking to mediapersons outside the hotel, Sushma Sawraj said: "Tiranga Yatra has concluded because it was to culminate on Jan 26 - Republic Day."
She said it is for the government to answer as to why "the two leaders of opposition (she and Arun Jaitley) were kept in custody on Republic Day". The BJP leaders will visit Jammu where they will hold a press conference to explain the whole turn of events.
The Omar Abdullah government withdrew all the cases of violating prohibitory orders in Kathua to facilitate their release. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had invited the BJP leaders to attend the Republic Day celebrations at Jammu or Srinagar. But they rejected it, saying it was a self-contradiction.
"On the one hand, the government arrested us for hoisting flag on the Republic Day and then invited us to join the official function. This makes no sense to us," Shanta Kumar said.