Indian activist Anna Hazare left Tihar jail in New Delhi Friday to the cheers and applause of his supporters as he prepares to embark on a 15-day public hunger strike to demand tougher anti-corruption legislation.

The 74-year old activist accepted an offer Thursday from police to hold the public protest starting Friday at an open-air venue in the capital capable of holding 25,000 people.

Hazare and more than 1,000 of his followers were detained Tuesday after refusing to submit to police demands that his public protest be limited to three days and less than 5,000 people.

Hazare has galvanized the nation's anger at official corruption and put Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government on the defensive.

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Singh told parliament Wednesday that Hazare's protest, while inspired by high ideals, was “fraught with grave consequences for our parliamentary democracy.” Mr. Singh said that Hazare cannot be allowed to force lawmakers to sign his own version of anti-corruption legislation.

Earlier this month, the prime minister's ruling Congress party introduced an anti-corruption bill in parliament that would create a civil organization , with the powers to investigate ministers and bureaucrats. But Hazare rejected the bill and called for parliament to pass his own version, saying it would do more to hold the prime minister and judicial branch accountable.

Popular outrage over widespread corruption in India has grown steadily over the past year as one high-profile corruption scandal after another have made headlines in national media. They include the sale of telecommunications licenses at below market value and numerous financial irregularities in India's hosting of last year's Commonwealth Games.

In the latest scandal, India's upper house of parliament voted Thursday to impeach a sitting judge on charges that he misappropriated large sums of public money.

Soumitra Sen, a judge in the Kolkata High Court, is India's first sitting judge to be removed from his post