Amid the Tihar jail authorities and AAP leaders being at loggerhead regarding the health of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, the prison authorities on Monday said Kejriwal lost only two kg in prison and that he was being regularly monitored by an AIIMS medical board, refuting the AAP's claims that his health is deteriorating and has lost 8.5 kg in jail since his arrest.
In a report sent to the Delhi government's Home Department, the Tihar administration shared Kejriwal's vitals and said that the narrative created by AAP ministers and leaders "confuses and misleads the public". “He has not lost 8.5 KGs weight in jail, as is being touted by AAP Ministers, MP and others,” it claimed.
The report by the jail authorities stated that Kejriwal weighed 65 kg when he first came to prison on April 1 and 66 kg between April 8 and 29. When he returned to prison on June 2 after a 21-day bail, his weight was 63.5 kg.
"On July 14, his weight was 61.5 kg. So, effectively, he lost 2 kg," the report stated. It stated that while he has been eating home-cooked food in jail, he has been returning food sent from his home routinely since June 3, from the very next day that he came back to jail after election campaigning. “It may be noted that in his earlier stint in jail, he was deliberately eating food that would spike his sugar levels,” it said.
A medical board of AIIMS has been constantly monitoring the chief minister and his wife Sunita Kejriwal remains in regular touch with the board, the report stated. The prison administration said in its report that the AAP's narrative with "false information and ulterior motive" was intended to "browbeat" it.
The blood pressure and sugar levels and weight of the accused is regularly being monitored and he is provided adequate treatment for all his ailments and is regularly having home-cooked food thrice a day. "These facts are brought on record in the light of the media vilification being carried out by vested interest groups," it said.
Meanwhile,senior AAP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh alleged the BJP was playing with Kejriwal's life. “It is a crime to "leak" someone's medical report and there should be a probe into this,” he said.
Even the medical report "leaked" by the Tihar jail authorities to the media states that he lost weight and suffered multiple hypoglycemia episodes in prison, he said. "Something untoward might happen someday and he (Kejriwal) could slip into a coma. Since his custody, his blood sugar has dropped below 50 mg/dL on five occasions in the night," the AAP MP claimed.Kejriwal was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on March 21 in a money laundering case linked to alleged irregularities in the Delhi government's now-scrapped excise policy 2021-22. He was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in a corruption case related to the alleged scam from Tihar jail on June 26.
The chief minister was granted interim bail by the Supreme Court on Friday in the money laundering case but he remains in jail in the CBI case.
