Arvind Kejriwal Allegedly Denied Home-Cooked Food in Jail Amid Health Concerns
NEW DELHI: Hours after the Enforcement Directorate told a Delhi court that chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has been deliberately eating mangoes and other foods to raise his blood sugar level and create grounds for bail on medical grounds, city minister Atishi on Thursday alleged there is a “huge conspiracy” to kill him by denying him home-cooked food in Tihar jail.
Ms Atishi accused the ED of lying about the chief minister's diet. “The BJP, through its wing ED, is trying to harm Mr Kejriwal's health. They are trying to stop the supply of home-cooked food to him in jail. The ED lied in court and said that Mr Kejriwal has been consuming tea with sugar and eating sweets. This is a complete lie. Mr Kejriwal has been taking an artificial sweetener,” she said.
The minister said that once Mr Kejriwal is disallowed home food, “it will not be known what he is being fed in jail and when”. She alleged: “From the past few days, Mr Kejriwal’s sugar level has been over 300 mg/dl, but he has been denied insulin by Tihar jail authorities. There's a conspiracy to kill Mr Kejriwal by stopping his home-cooked food supply.”
Earlier in the day, the ED made the “deliberate attempt to spike up the sugar level” claim before special judge Kaveri Baweja, who directed the Tihar jail authorities to file a report in the matter, including Mr Kejriwal’s diet chart.
Mr Kejriwal, who is in judicial custody for his role in the alleged excise policy case, had moved the court to seek permission to consult his regular doctor via video conference because of his fluctuating sugar levels. The judge directed the authorities concerned to file the report by Friday, when the court is likely to take up the matter again.
After the hearing, ED counsel Zoheb Hossain told the media that Mr Kejriwal has withdrawn his application after the probe agency submitted that he is trying to create a situation wherein he could be moved to a hospital or move a bail plea on medical grounds.
Mr Hossain told the special judge that Mr Kejriwal has been eating high-sugar-content food despite having type 2 diabetes. He said: “Mr Kejriwal has been intentionally consuming aloo pooris, mangoes and sweets daily. This is being done to make grounds for his bail on medical grounds… The person is in the court's custody...and the court has to ensure the person is not posing a health hazard, even to himself.”
The ED made these submissions in the Rouse Avenue court after reportedly obtaining a list of foods that the Delhi chief minister had been eating over the past 15 days as well as a list detailing his blood sugar levels.
According to the jail report: "The high glycaemic index diet taken on a regular basis for breakfast by Mr Kejriwal since April 2 included four eggs, two bananas and sweetened tea, apart from namkeen. He had also been eating rice, potatoes, tea and fruits, including mangoes, for lunch and bananas, sweets, rice, aloo subzi and namkeen for dinner. This, in turn, had increased his blood sugar from 116 in the morning on April 4 to 260 on April 12 and 276 on April 14."
Mr Kejriwal’s legal team, however, insisted that all food items on the chief minister's diet chart had been prescribed by his doctor. His lawyer Vivek Jain accused the ED of cooking up excuses to stop the supply of home-cooked food, which was permitted by the court in view of the AAP chief's diabetes.
“He has only been eating what is prescribed by doctors. This is an issue made up by the ED to stop home-cooked food for Mr Kejriwal. This concerns the health of the chief minister... Is the ED above the doctor?” asked Mr Jain while stating that the probe agency is just making statements for the sake of media publicity.
Addressing a press conference, Ms Atishi said the ED told the court that Mr Kejriwal has been eating bananas. “Any doctor will tell you that diabetes patients are asked to carry bananas or any toffee or chocolate because a drop in sugar level can be dangerous for life. The ED said he has been eating aloo-puri. The ED should be afraid of God for lying so much. He ate puri only on the first day of Navratra. All these lies are being spread by the BJP and the ED to stop the supply of home-cooked food for Mr Kejriwal,” she alleged.
Mr Kejriwal’s judicial custody was extended till April 23 by a Delhi court on Monday in the money-laundering case related to the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy. He was first sent to Tihar Jail on April 1, hours after Ms Baweja sent him to judicial custody till April 15.
On Thursday, the special judge sent Chanpreet Singh, who allegedly managed the AAP’s funds during the 2022 Goa Assembly elections, to judicial custody till April 23, after the expiry of his ED custody.
The judge also extended till April 26 the judicial custody of AAP leader Manish Sisodia in the money laundering case linked to the alleged excise scam. The judge extended the former Delhi deputy CM's custody after he was produced before the court through a video conference.
Mr Sisodia's co-accused and party colleague, Sanjay Singh, who was recently granted bail by the Supreme Court in the case, also appeared before the court through a video conference.