Day after release from jail, Sisodia offers prayers at Hanuman temple, to address AAP workers

New Delhi: AAP leader and former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia on Saturday offered prayers at the Hanuman temple in Connaught Place, a day after he was released from jail in the Delhi excise policy case.

The Supreme Court on Friday gave Sisodia bail in corruption and money laundering cases linked to the alleged excise policy "scam" and said his long incarceration of 17 months without trial had deprived him of the right to speedy justice.

He reached the temple along with Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders, including MP Sanjay Singh and ministers Atishi and Saurabh Bharadwaj. Scores of party workers had gathered on the temple premises to greet him and raised slogans of "Jai Sri Ram" and "Jai Hanuman" as he arrived.

Sisodia said, "May Lord Hanuman bless all the people of Delhi." AAP MP Singh said nothing will be achieved with politics of "hatred and revenge" and hoped Delhi Chief Minister and party supremo Arvind Kejriwal is also out of jail soon.

Sisodia will go to Rajghat and then address party leaders, workers and the media at the DDU Marg-based AAP headquarters, around which there has been a heavy deployment of police personnel since morning.

After walking out of the Tihar jail on Friday evening, Sisodia said he got bail due to the power of the Constitution, and asserted that the same power will ensure the release of Kejriwal, who is in jail in the case.

Sisodia was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on February 26 last year for purported irregularities in the formulation and implementation of the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy 2021-22.