Vigil. Shine a light ... supporters of Anna Hazare gather in Allahabad as rallies in support of his campaign lead to more than 1200 arrests. Photo: AP
DELHI: An anti-corruption protest leader whose arrest reverberated across India, sparking outrage at the government, ended the day with a very different twist: he refused an offer of release from jail.
The late-night drama on Tuesday came after a long day in which the protest leader, Anna Hazare, had initially planned to begin a hunger strike at a park in New Delhi, backed by rallies across the country. Seeking to pre-empt the demonstrations, the police arrested Mr Hazare and his aides and detained more than 1200 of his followers, though most were soon released.

Mr Hazare remained inside Delhi's Tihar jail yesterday as thousands of chanting, flag-waving supporters, including a popular yoga guru who has backed the campaign against graft, massed outside.
''People are joining the movement, coming to the streets,'' his lawyer, Prashant Bhushan, said.
''It is spreading throughout the country.'' The Hazare spectacle dominated the Indian political landscape on Tuesday as Parliament adjourned for the day.
Opposition leaders assailed India's national government, castigating officials for cracking down on peaceful protesters.
Government officials defended the police action as a law-and-order issue since Mr Hazare had insisted on staging his hunger strike in defiance of police.
A showdown has been brewing for weeks, as Mr Hazare and his allies sought to mobilise a national movement to pressure India's leaders into creating an independent anti-corruption agency to be known as a Lokpal.
He rose to prominence in April, when he began a fast to the death for a Lokpal and unexpectedly attracted thousands of mostly middle-class supporters .
Alarmed by the scale of the popular outrage, Government officials persuaded Mr Hazare to abandon his protest by inviting him and his aides to join a special committee to draft legislation for a Lokpal. Weeks of talks ensued, and a Lokpal bill is pending before Parliament. But Mr Hazare denounced the legislation as too weak and vowed to stage a new hunger strike to renew the pressure.
Yesterday the Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, told a rowdy session of parliament the hunger strike by Mr Hazare was ''totally misconceived''.
He said the 74-year-old was trying to circumvent democracy and insisted that the arrests had been justified because Mr Hazare's campaign was a challenge to the authority of the government. ''I acknowledge that Anna Hazare may be inspired by high ideals,'' Mr Singh said. ''However, the path that he has chosen to impose a draft of the bill on parliament is totally misconceived and fraught with grave consequences for our parliamentary democracy.''
Mr Hazare's supporters want an organisation with powers, including the right to investigate the Prime Minister and judges.
The New York Times; Bloomberg