Varun Gandhi paroled for election

NEW DELHI, April 18 (UPI) -- Varun Gandhi, a member of India's leading political dynasty, has been released from jail to allow him to run in the parliamentary election.

Gandhi was arrested in March for allegedly making a speech threatening violence against Muslims. The great-grandson of Jawaharlal Nehru, one of the founders of the Congress Party, Gandhi is a member of the nationalist BJP.

A day after he was paroled from the jail in Etah, Gandhi released a statement Friday denying any support for political violence, the Economic Times reported.

"I shall continue to raise my voice against anti-national forces," he said.

Gandhi is descended from two prime ministers, Nehru and his grandmother, Indira Gandhi. His father, Sanjay Gandhi, was killed in a plane crash when he was a baby and he was 4 when his grandmother was assassinated, leaving him to be brought up by his mother, who opposed the Gandhi family's political views.

He is running for Lok Sabha, the lower house of Parliament, from the Pilibhit district.