Hours after his arrest in the afternoon and with thousands of his supporters trailing him, the bus he was travelling caught in a huge jam.
The yoga guru then forced the police to take him to a football stadium in central Delhi instead.
Ramdev, who was to be taken to the makeshift jail in Bawana, also demanded that all the thousands of his supporters be taken to custody.
A senior police official said they did not take Ramdev to Bawana as it would take long to reach the locality in Outer Delhi.
It took more than three hours to reach near Ambedkar Stadium at Delhi Gate from Ranjit Singh flyover, which is less than two kilometres.
Traffic in whole of central Delhi was affected due to Ramdev's protest with police asking protesters to move into the stadium as jams could affect the functioniong of a number of government hospitals operating in the vicinity.