New Delhi:

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Telangana lawmaker K Kavitha – opposition politicians arrested last month – weeks before the start of the Lok Sabha election – in the alleged liquor policy scam – have been sent to extended judicial custody for 14 days. The Aam Aadmi Party boss and the Bharat Rashtra Samithi leader – both in Delhi’s Tihar Jail – will be produced in court next on May 7.

The Delhi Chief Minister has a plea pending in the Supreme Court, in which he has challenged his arrest March 21 by the Enforcement Directorate on money laundering charges. The court heard the matter on April 15, but denied Mr Kejriwal immediate relief pending a reply from the federal agency.

Days earlier the Delhi High Court rejected the same plea, noting the ED had filed enough material to back its claim – that Mr Kejriwal was allegedly involved in forming the now-scrapped policy and demanding bribes of Rs 100 crore used to fund the AAP’s Punjab and Goa election campaigns.

In a related matter earlier today, Mr Kejriwal – a Type 2 diabetes patient – received his first shot of insulin in (reportedly) 32 days. The injection was administered after his blood sugar levels spiked to an alarmingly high 320 mg/dl. Mr Kejriwal had moved the court last week and this asking for insulin injections, but the plea had been opposed by the ED, which claimed the Chief Minister had deliberately eaten high sugar food items to elevate glucose levels and apply for medical bail.

On Monday a Delhi court directed a panel of specialists from the centre-run All India Institute of Medical Sciences to assess the Chief Minister’s condition and establish if insulin is, in fact, needed.

The AAP and Mr Kejriwal have denied all charges, and have counter-accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of “political vendetta” against a rival, and a member of the Congress-led INDIA opposition bloc, before the general election. The AAP and the opposition have repeatedly claimed federal investigation agencies – such as the Enforcement Directorate – target opposition leaders on instructions from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. The centre has denied this claim.

Ms Kavitha – the daughter of former Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao – will learn on May 2 the outcome of a bail plea in Delhi’s Rouse Avenue Court. Special Judge Kaveri Bawaja on Monday reserved her order. The plea is against Ms Kavitha’s arrest by the Central Bureau of Investigation, which took her into custody while she was still in judicial custody in the ED’s case.

The case against the BRS leader is that she was part of the ‘South group’ – a cartel of businesspersons who paid an alleged Rs 600 crore in bribes to the AAP for allotment of liquor licences.

Ms Kavitha has also denied the charges and, like Mr Kejriwal, has questioned the timing of ED, CBI action against her, coming as it did weeks and days before the general election.

The ED has also arrested two other AAP leaders in this case – former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who was arrested in February last year and has been in jail since, and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh, who was arrested in October and received bail earlier this month.

While granting bail to Mr Singh, the Supreme Court observed investigating agencies had failed, so far, to recover any of the alleged bribe money. “Nothing has been recovered… there is no trace (of money allegedly received by AAP as bribes from the ‘South group’)…” the court remarked.

The same point has been made by the AAP and Ms Kavitha’s BRS colleagues.

New Delhi:

Delhi’s Tihar jail is like a city but it does not work in a vaccum, Sanjay Beniwal, the jail’s Director General, said today in the backdrop of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s allegation that he is not being administered insulin. His party has alleged a conspiracy to murder him. Speaking to NDTV in an exclusive interview, Mr Beniwal said Tihar has around 1,000 diabetics and they are given food and medication according to the advice of senior doctors, including those from AIIMS and Ram Manohar Lohia hospital.

“We usually face such pressure, we have a habit of tolerating it, it is part of life,” he told NDTV. 

Mr Kejriwal has gone to court alleging that he is being deprived of insulin since his arrest on March 21 in connection with the Delhi liquor policy case. His request for a video call with a private practitioner has been denied by the special court in Delhi that is hearing the case. 

His Aam Aadmi Party, meanwhile, has held protests outside the Tihar jail.

Calling the allegations “baseless”, Mr Beniwal said they will follow the instructions of the court.

“Whatever allegations AAP is making, we have answered them very well in court,” Mr Beniwal said. “Whatever questions the court has asked us, we have also answered them very well. We all accept what the court says. Why are they making all these allegations? Only he should answer,” he said.  

“Do you think slow poison can be given in jail? Do you yourself think this is possible?” Mr Beniwal added.

“Around 900 to 1000 prisoners in our jail are suffering from diabetes. Some are given medicines, some insulin, some need something else… our government-appointed senior doctors do all this,” he said.

Explaining the existing practice under the jail manual, he said when someone’s illness is serious, “we take the advice from the referral hospital, which is outside the jail”.

“Our referral hospitals include AIIMS, RML and other hospitals. This is a normal process for all prisoners. There is no A B C D category for any particular prisoner,” he added.

New Delhi:
The Enforcement Directorate custody of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal ends today and the central agency probing the alleged liquor policy scam is likely to produce him in court.

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New Delhi:

The government on Wednesday held a 40-minute meeting United States’ Acting Deputy Chief of Mission, who was summoned to the Ministry of External Affairs’ office in Delhi’s South Block.

This comes a day after a US State Department spokesperson said it is monitoring reports of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest, and called on New Delhi to ensure “a fair and timely legal process” for the jailed Aam Aadmi Party leader.

“We take strong objection to the remarks of the Spokesperson of the US State Department about certain legal proceedings in India. In diplomacy, states are expected to be respectful of the sovereignty and internal affairs of others. This responsibility is even more so in case of fellow democracies. It could otherwise end up setting unhealthy precedents. India’s legal processes are based on an independent judiciary which is committed to objective and timely outcomes. Casting aspersions on that is unwarranted,” the MEA said.

The US State Department’s comments came, in turn, days after Germany’s Foreign Office stressed that Mr Kejriwal, like any other Indian citizen facing charges, is entitled to a fair and impartial trial.

The Indian government reacted strongly to the comment, summoning the German envoy and labelling the Foreign Office spokesperson’s remark “blatant interference in internal matters”.

“We see such remarks as interfering in our judicial process and undermining the independence of our judiciary,” the External Affairs Ministry said, “Biased assumptions are most unwarranted.”

Asked about India’s protest to Germany, the State Department spokesperson told Reuters, “We refer you to the German Foreign Ministry for comment on their discussions with the Indian government.”

Arvind Kejriwal was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate last week in connection with the alleged liquor policy scam that has roiled his AAP and provoked furious protests from the opposition ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha election. Mr Kejriwal was this week sent to jail till March 28.

The Enforcement Directorate believes the now-scrapped liquor policy provided an impossibly high profit margin of 185 per cent for retailers and 12 per cent for wholesalers. Of the latter, six per cent – over Rs 600 crore – were bribes and the money was allegedly used to fund the AAP’s poll campaigns.

Meanwhile, Mr Kejriwal is in the Delhi High Court today to challenge his arrest.

The ED has labelled the Chief Minister as a key conspirator in this case, but Mr Kejriwal and party colleagues arrested in this matter – ex-Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh, and former Health Minister Satyendar Jain – have all denied the charges.

The AAP and the opposition have hit out at the BJP-led central government for using central agencies, like the ED, to target rivals and critics before the general election. The AAP has criticised Mr Kejriwal’s arrest on grounds it was timed to interfere with his plans to campaign for the party.

The BJP has dismissed claims it uses central agencies as described by the opposition.