By IANS,
New Delhi : Arvind Kejriwal, Prashant Bhushan and 24 other Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) members facing rioting charges Tuesday gave an undertaking to a Delhi court that they would appear before it to attend the proceedings.
Metropolitan Magistrate Jay Thareja said: “All the aforesaid accused are released, subject to their signing this order as acknowledgement of their undertaking to this court that they will face trial, appear on all the dates of hearing and abide by the conditions imposed by this court, during trial.”
The court earlier issued summons directing them to attend the hearing for their alleged involvement in rioting in August 2012.
Earlier in the day, the party members said they “would rather go to jail than seek bail” in a case slapped on them for staging a protest near Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s official residence at 7, Race Course Road, in defiance of police orders.
The accused alleged police had filed false cases against them to harass them and curb their protest.
After they refused to seek bail, the court released them asking them to appear before it during trial.
The court would next hear the matter Feb 23.
The court was hearing three separate cases filed by police against AAP members for violating orders that prohibited gathering of four or more people during their protest on the coal blocks allocation issue Aug 26, 2012, at the residences of the prime minister and Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
Kejriwal during the hearing said they deliberately violated the prohibitory orders and were “ready to face the punishment”.
As per the charge sheet, the accused also damaged public property during the protest and some police officers were injured.