Out of detention venue, Kejriwal begins protest at Parliament Street against Salman Khurshid
"We are ready to be arrested but we won't stop our protest till our demands are met," Kejriwal said.
Kejriwal, who led a protest in the capital on Friday, was detained along with 150 others at a stadium in Bawana on the outskirts of Delhi. He was let off late Friday night, but the activist and his supporters refused to leave the stadium till Saturday morning.
Kejriwal, accompanied by his associates Gopal Rai and Manish Sisodia, reached Parliament Street Saturday morning, announcing an indefinite protest.
Kejriwal's protest began following an expose by the TV Today Group that the union social welfare and empowerment ministry had granted Rs.71.50 lakh to the Khurshids' Zakir Hussain Memorial Trust for distributing tricycles and hearing aids to the disabled in 17 districts of Uttar Pradesh. However, the money was siphoned off, the expose alleged.
Meanwhile defending Law Minister Salman Khurshid and his wife Louise Khurshid against charges that their NGO had siphoned off lakhs of rupees meant for the physically challenged, Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari on Saturday said "untruth cannot become the basis for crucifying anybody".
"Ultimately, whether something is true or false has to be judicially adjudicated before there is a finality to it. Untruth cannot become the basis of crucifying anybody," Tewari told reporters here.
"Indian jurisprudence holds that you and I enjoy equal protection of the laws and are innocent until proven guilty," he added.
Tewari rubbished media reports claiming that a Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report had pointed to irregularities in the utilisation of grants given by the government to the Khurshids' Zakir Hussain Memorial Trust.
"We are also reliably informed that the CAG report which has been reported by some newspapers is not the CAG report at all," Tewari said.
According to a sting operation conducted by the TV Today Group, the union social welfare and empowerment ministry had granted Rs.71.50 lakh to the Khurshids' trust for distributing tricycles and hearing aids to the disabled in 17 districts of Uttar Pradesh.
While Salman Khurshid is the president of the trust, his wife is the project director.
Slamming Kejriwal, Louise said that the IAC activist was an "ambulance chaser" and that it was unfair that Kejriwal was "using the handicap to try and build a political campaign".
Meanwhile, Delhi Police said that four companies of police personnel had been deployed at Parliament Street and that the activists can protest at the site if they do not try to march to the prime minister's house again.
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