NEW DELHI, Sept 13, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - A top political opponent of Indian Prime
Minister Narendra Modi was granted bail on Friday after months behind bars on
accusations his party took kickbacks in exchange for liquor licences.

Arvind Kejriwal, chief minister of the capital Delhi and a key leader in an
opposition alliance that battled Modi in national elections earlier this
year, was first detained in March over the long-running corruption probe.

He is among several opposition leaders, with one of his colleagues describing
his arrest at the time as a "political conspiracy" orchestrated by Modi's
ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

A two-judge bench of the Supreme Court ruled that Kejriwal's arrest was
lawful but that he should be released from custody while contesting the
charges against him.

"Prolonged incarceration amounts to unjust deprivation of liberty," Supreme
Court justice Surya Kant said in a verdict granting bail to Delhi chief
minister Arvind Kejriwal.

Kejriwal had earlier been freed by the same court for several weeks to allow
him to campaign in this year's general election, but returned to custody once
voting concluded.

His government was accused of corruption when it implemented a policy to
liberalise the sale of liquor in the capital three years ago, surrendering a
lucrative government stake in the sector.

The policy was withdrawn the following year, but the resulting probe into the
alleged corrupt allocation of licences has since led to the jailing of two
top Kejriwal allies.

Rallies in support of Kejriwal, who has consistently denied wrongdoing and
refused to relinquish his post after his arrest, were held in numerous other
big cities around India after he was taken into custody.

Kejriwal, 55, has been chief minister for nearly a decade and first came to
office as a staunch anti-corruption crusader.

He had resisted multiple summons from the Enforcement Directorate, India's
financial crimes agency, to be interrogated as part of the probe.

- 'Target political opponents' -

Modi's political opponents and international rights groups have long sounded
the alarm on India's shrinking democratic space.

US think tank Freedom House said this year that the BJP had "increasingly
used government institutions to target political opponents".

Rahul Gandhi, the most prominent member of the opposition Congress party and
scion of a dynasty that dominated Indian politics for decades, was convicted
of criminal libel last year after a complaint by a member of Modi's party.

His two-year prison sentence saw him disqualified from parliament until the
verdict was suspended by a higher court, and raised concerns over democratic
norms in the world's most populous country.

Kejriwal and Gandhi are both members of an opposition alliance formed to
compete against Modi and the BJP.