Congress MLA Ajay Rai, who was arrested for his alleged involvement in the violence during a march on October 5, 2015, was given a warm welcome by his partymen when he arrived on Tuesday.
Rai was arrested in connection with violence and arson during the march by seers and other local leaders against police action on protesters opposing ban on immersion of Ganesha idols in the Ganga river. He was later booked under National Security Act for allegedly conspiring the violence.
The Allahabad High Court on March 29 quashed the order of Varanasi district magistrate invoking stringent NSA against Rai, terming the imposition as "illegal", and granted him bail on April 12. Following which Rai was released yesterday after being lodged in Fatehgarh jail in Farrukhabad district for 208 days.
Rai had fought the 2014 Lok Sabha elections as Congress candidate from Varanasi. He finished third and lost his deposit in what turned out to be a virtually one-sided contest in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi defeated his nearest rival Arvind Kejriwal by a margin of 3.7 lakh votes.
