Indian court grants bail to Arvind Kejriwal after bribery case arrest

Arvind Kejriwal, an Indian opposition leader and New Delhi’s chief minister, was granted bail on Thursday by a court in the capital, after he was arrested in a bribery case in March. Kejriwal, the leader of the Aam Aadmi Party, was taken into custody weeks before India's national election, in which he was one of the challengers to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Modi returned to power for a third straight term earlier in June, even though his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party lost its majority. Kejriwal's arrest was widely condemned by opposition parties who called it a political move by the Modi government against one of his fiercest opponents during a national election. The arrest triggered days of protests by party activists supported by other opposition parties. Kejriwal denied the accusations and called them a political conspiracy. His party is part of a broad alliance of opposition parties called INDIA, which was the main challenger to Modi during the election. The opposition parties accused the government of misusing federal investigation agencies to harass and weaken its political opponents. Kejriwal promised to rid the Indian political system and governance of corruption and inefficiency.