Tihar Jail says Arvind Kejriwal fine amid insulin row, AAP rebuts

NEW DELHI,APR 21 : Doctors from AIIMS Delhi provided a 40-minute consultation to jailed Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in Tihar Jail via video conferencing on Saturday, during which he was assured of no serious health concerns and was advised to continue taking the prescribed medicines, a source told India Today.

This development came amid a row over Kejriwal’s health in judicial custody, with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) alleging that the Chief Minister is denied insulin and being pushed towards a “slow death”.

Saturday’s video conference was organised by the Tihar Jail administration on the request of Arvind Kejrriwal’s wife, Sunita Kejriwal. The jailed Chief Minister’s complete record of the Glucose Monitoring Sensor, as well as details of his diet and medicines were checked during the consultation.

The insulin issue, however, was neither raised by Arvind Kejriwal nor suggested by the doctors during the video consultation, the Tihar Jail source added.

The Tihar Jail’s response came after Delhi Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj’s press conference earlier in the day, in which he slammed the prison authorities for contradicting their earlier stance of having all facilities to handle a diabetic inmate.

Later, he also took to X to amp up his attack on the prison authorities by posting a letter from the director general of Tihar Jail to AIIMS. In the letter, Tihar Jail requested a diabetologist to be appointed for Arvind Kejriwal.

“There was no diabetes specialist in the jail. After 20 days, a doctor from AIIMS was asked yesterday. For so many days, Arvind Kejriwal jil has been asking to take him to a diabetes specialist and for insulin. Till now, the BJP government at the Centre said there were specialists in the jail; hence there was no need for doctors from outside,” his tweet, roughly translated from Hindi, read.

AAP sources later said that Tihar Jail authorities admitted to not have got Arvind Kejriwal checked by a specialist for 20 days and are “deliberately putting” his life in danger. They also questioned why a person with 300 blood sugar level was not given insulin.

On Friday (April 19), the Tihar Jail administration submitted a report to Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena, saying the Chief Minister’s health was reviewed on April 10 and April 15 by a medicine specialist who advised oral anti-diabetic drugs, and that it’s “incorrect to state that Kejriwal was denied insulin at any point” during the treatment.

Recently, there has been an exchange between the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the AAP over Kejriwal’s health. The probe agency alleged that the Chief Minister was consuming mangoes, aloo puri and sweets daily despite having Type-2 Diabetes to raise blood sugar level and create a ground for a medical bail.

Arvind Kejriwal’s lawyer countered the allegations saying he only had mangoes thrice in jail and consumed aloo puri as a Navratra prasad. The statement was made during a hearing at Delhi’s Rouse Avenue Court on Friday on a plea to allow the Chief Minister to get his insulin shots.

On March 21, Arvind Kejriwal was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with the now-scrapped Delhi liquor policy case. He will remain in jail till April 23, when the next hearing will take place.

-PTI