Kejriwal held, released; says protest will continue

Supporters of erstwhile Team Anna on Sunday marched towards Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's residence as part of their 'gherao' protest against the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party BJP on the coal block allocation issue.

The march started from Jantar Mantar around 1 pm after activists Arvind Kejriwal, Prashant Bhushan, Manish Sisodia and others addressed the protesters. However, activist Kiran Bedi, who had differences over targetting BJP, was not present at Jantar Mantar exposing chinks in the team, which has decided to take a political plunge.

Marching towards the prime minister's residence, Kejriwal told reporters that Congress and the BJP were 'hand in glove' in corruption and people's anger is now visible.

The police did not prevent protesters from marching towards the prime minister's residence though barricades were erected at several places. Sporadic protests throughout the day were witnessed outside the residences of the prime minister, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and BJP chief Nitin Gadkari and a number of protesters were detained and subsequently released.

The day began on a dramatic note with Kejriwal and five others surfaced in front of the residences of the prime minister and Congress and BJP party presidents.

All the six -- Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, Gopal Rai, Kumar Vishas, Sanjay Singh and another person -- were later released from custody after being detained for about an hour at the Mandir Marg police station where their supporters staged a protest and prevented police from taking them to Bawana.

Kejriwal and Gopal were picked up from outside Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's residence while Sisodia and Vishwas were detained from outside 10 Janpath, the residence of the Congress chief Sonia Gandhi. Sanjay Singh and another person were detained from outside BJP chief Nitin Gadkari's residence.

The activists had announced the gherao of the residences of these three leaders alleging that Congress and the BJP were hand-in-glove in corruption and involved in the allocation of coal blocks.