Delhi Home Minister Kailash Gahlot hoisted the national flag at Chhatrasal stadium on Independence Day and said he was distressed that the elected Delhi chief minister could not hoist the flag because he is in jail.

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"Standing under this flag, I can say proudly that Arvind Kejriwal is a modern day freedom fighter because he accepted the punishment to work for the people of Delhi by going to the jail, but did not bow down or break in front of the anti-democratic forces," news agency PTI quoted Gahlot as saying.

Arvind Kejriwal was arrested on March 21 in connection with an excise policy case and is currently lodged in Tihar jail. Kejriwal was on June 26 arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) as well.

AAP leader and former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, also arrested in connection with the excise policy case on February 26 last year, was granted bail by the Supreme Court.

'No One Would've Imagined...': Atishi

Delhi Minister Atishi, who was earlier directed by jailed Kejriwal to hoist the national flag on his behalf, said in a post on X on Thursday that no one "would have even imagined in their dreams that one day, in independent India, an elected Chief Minister would be framed in a false case and kept in jail for months".

"Let us pledge on this Independence Day that we will continue to fight against dictatorship till our last breath," she said.

Responding to Atishi's post, Arvind Kejriwal's wife Sunita Kejriwal said, "Today the tricolour was not hoisted at the CM residence... This dictatorship can keep an elected Chief Minister in jail, but how can it stop the patriotism in the heart."

Lt. Governor VK Saxena on Tuesday nominated Delhi Home Minister Kailash Gahlot to hoist the national flag at the state-level Independence Day event, bypassing the AAP government's request to allow Education Minister Atishi to do so.

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A row erupted over the issue with Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) lashing out at Saxena after the general administration department refused to implement Minister Gopal Rai's direction to let Atishi hoist the tricolour in place of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, saying it was legally "invalid".