New Delhi: Anna Hazare was remanded to seven-day judicial custody on Tuesday after he refused to sign personal bond.
Anna was asked to sign undertaking that he will not violate Section 144.
He is being taken to Tihar Jail from Rajouri Garden Police Station.
Hours before he was to launch his fast against corruption, Anna Hazare was detained by the Delhi Police on Tuesday here preventing him from going ahead with his protest.
Two other prominent activists Arvind Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi were also taken into preventive custody at Rajghat, Delhi Police said.
The 73-year-old Gandhian was taken into custody from a residential area in Mayur Vihar before he was to proceed to the venue of his fast in J P Park where prohibitory orders are in place.
According to sources, senior police officials, including DCP (Crime) Ashok Chand, met with Hazare on Tuesday morning at an east Delhi apartment where he was staying in a bid to convince him to not go ahead with his planned protest defying prohibitory orders at J P Park.
However, Hazare turned down the request following which he was detained.
"We have detained him as he did not budge from his position of defying prohibitory orders," police official said.
Flaying the police move, Bedi said, "Emergency has revisited the country."
"This detention is undemocratic and unconstitutional," she said.
Around 500 supporters were with Anna at the time of his detention.
Chanting 'Bharat Mata ki jai' and 'Vande Matram,' supporters created hurdles in the way of the police which were trying to take him to a nearby police station.
Ahead of the proposed fast by the Gandhian, a group of people had thronged the east Delhi apartment where Hazare was staying to pledge their support to his protest.
Security personnel, including some in plain clothes and some from the special branch, were deployed around the apartment premise.
Around 500 police personnel have been deployed from early morning itself after the city police imposed Section 144 around the park, police sources said.
Hazare had asked his supporters on Monday to fill up jails across the country if he was arrested after being denied permission to hold fast here.
After Prime Minister Manmohan Singh slammed him for resorting to fast as a protest when the Parliament was seized of the Lokpal bill, the Gandhian had said he will go to J P park despite the Delhi Police imposing prohibitory orders.
"I come to understand that I will be refused permission. We will go there. If I am arrested, I will continue my hunger strike in jail. If I am released, I will go back to the venue and this circle will continue," he had said.
He said once he is arrested, people should fill up the jails in every village across the country.
"Going to jail for the country is no crime...It is a decoration," he said.
Delhi Police spokesperson Rajan Bhagat had said that prohibitory orders under Section 144 CrPC has been imposed in some areas of Daryaganj and IP police stations, which include Jai Prakash Narain Park and Shaheed Park.
Hazare had also accused the Prime Minister of "speaking" the language of his ministerial colleague Kapil Sibal, saying the Lokpal bill was before the Parliament which will take the call.
Detention is beginning of second freedom struggle: Hazare
Meanwhile, describing his detention by the police as the beginning of the "second freedom struggle", Anna Hazare asked people to participate in a "jail bharo" agitation.
"My dear countrymen, second freedom struggle has begun and now I have also been arrested. But will this movement be stopped by my arrest. No not at all. Don't let it happen," Hazare said soon after being detained by the police.
The 73-year-old Gandhian asked people to court arrest and go to jails as part of the country-wide agitation against corruption and to demand a strong Lokpal.
"Time has come my countrymen when there should be no place left in jails in India to accommodate any more persons," he said while asking people to maintain peace.
"I once again request my fellow countrymen that peace should be maintained and there must be no violence...Crores of people have joined this movement and second line of leaders are standing to lead this movement," he said.
Hazare said leaders like Kejriwal, Bedi, Prashant Bhusan,Manish Sisodia, Arvind Gaud, PV Rajgopal, Shanti Bhusan and Akhil Gogoi will lead the agitation.
"There are many who will continue to lead you and this fight will go on," he said.
Meanwhile, Kiran Bedi said "somebody else" is behind the police action as the force is capable enough to handle such peaceful protests.
"This has not been done by the Delhi Police, somebody else is behind it. Delhi Police is capable enough to handle such peaceful protests," she said.
"When Anna asked the police about his crime, police said they were following orders," Bedi added.
On detention of Hazare, she said there is not much difference between detention and arrest.
"What is the difference between detention and arrest? There's no difference. When you are detained that means you are temporarily arrested and when your freedom is curbed, that is arrest," she said.
Team Hazare to move SC against detentions
Team Anna said they will approach the Supreme Court against detention of the Gandhian and his supporters ahead of the proposed indefinite fast, claiming the police action was "totally undemocratic".
"We will move the Supreme Court," Prashant Bhushan, lawyer and close associate of Hazare, told a news agency.
Terming the detentions as "totally undemocratic", the lawyer said the action showed that the government has no regard for fundamental rights of the citizens.
"Time has come to rise up against this government. We appeal to people to protest against the government peacefully," Bhushan said. Bhushan's father and former Law Minister Shanti Bhushan was also among the detainees.
PM calls for emergency Cabinet meet
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh scheduled an emergency meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs in the Parliament House following the detention of Gandhian activist Anna Hazare.
The meeting will take stock of the situation arising out of Hazare's detention by the Delhi Police early morning, hours before he was set to proceed on an indefinite fast demanding a stronger Lokpal Bill to deal with the corrupt.
Others scheduled to attend the meeting include Home Minister P. Chidambaram, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Defence Minister A.K. Antony and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, officials in Prime Minister's Office said.
External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna, Renewable Energy Minister Farooq Abdullah, Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal and Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi are also scheduled to attend the meeting, they added.
Hazare, 74, had announced on Sunday he would proceed with his indefinite fast at the Jai Prakash Narain Park near Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium close to the old quarters of the city. The Delhi Police had imposed prohibitory orders there.
He was detained along with some 250 of his supporters including activist Arvind Kejriwal and former top cop Kiran Bedi. Some of them were taken into custody from other places in the city.
"Don't let my arrest stop this movement. This is the nation's second struggle for freedom. The entire world has come to know how deep rooted corruption is," Hazare had said in a statement, minutes before his detention.
His supporters, who were detailed from various places, described the police action as unconstitutional.
Advani not surprised at Hazare's detention
Meanwhile senior BJP leader L K Advani said he was not surprised at the detention of Anna Hazare and charged the government with looking for scapegoats and stopping peaceful protests instead of fighting corruption.
"I am not surprised at this development. This is the direction in which this government is moving. Instead of dealing with the problem of corruption and owning responsibility it is trying to find scapegoats and stopping peaceful protests," Advani told the agency.
Asked about the government's stand that since the Lokpal has already been introduced in Parliament, Hazare should present his views to the Standing Committee, Advani said, "This is not the issue. Why should the government stop a peaceful protest".
On the corruption charges levelled against Hazare by the Congress, Advani said, "I don't want to say anything as I don't know all the facts. But he (Hazare) has already answered this."
Advani said the NDA leaders will meet shortly to decide their strategy in the Parliament on this issue.
Sources said the NDA is likely to raise a storm in the Parliament over Hazare's detention.
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