New Delhi:
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kegriwal was on Monday night administered insulin at Tihar jail after his blood sugar level soared, reaching 320. The AAP chief yesterday accused the Tihar jail administration of not providing him with insulin despite repeated requests.
Mr Kejriwal’s accusations were met with a rebuttal from the Tihar jail administration, which claimed that during a video consultation with specialists from AIIMS, neither the issue of insulin nor its necessity was raised.
“Today it is clear that the Chief Minister was right, he needed insulin. But the officials under the BJP’s central government were deliberately not treating him. Tell me BJP people! If insulin is not needed then why are you giving it now? Because the whole world is cursing them,” Delhi Minister and AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj said in a statement.
A city court had directed AIIMS to form a medical board to assess Mr Kejriwal’s medical needs, particularly regarding insulin. The court highlighted discrepancies between the Delhi Chief Minister’s dietary regimen which consisted of home-cooked food and doctor-prescribed diet.
In a letter to the Tihar jail superintendent on Monday, Mr Kejriwal rejected the jail administration’s claim that the issue of insulin was never raised by him in his consultations with the doctors. Mr Kejriwal insists that he had raised the issue of insulin demand persistently over the course of 10 days.
The AAP has alleged that the Tihar administration withheld insulin from Mr Kejriwal, alleging a conspiracy to harm him.
Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva has claimed that AAP leaders aimed to generate public sympathy for Mr Kejriwal’s health during the Lok Sabha elections.
“No doubt Arvind Kejriwal is a diabetic but his sugar is under control in jail as he didn’t raise demand for insulin in the video consultation with the doctors of AIIMS,” Mr Sachdeva said.
The Enforcement Directorate accused Mr Kejriwal of consuming sugary foods regularly, insinuating an attempt to exploit his health for legal advantage. Mr Kejriwal swiftly dismissed these accusations as petty and accused the agency of politicising the issue.
“I showed my high sugar levels to every doctor who came to see me. I showed them that there were three peaks in the sugar level every day — between 250-320,” Mr Kejriwal said in his letter.
I also showed them that my fasting sugar level was in the range of 160-200 every day. Almost every day, I demanded insulin. Then how could you make such a statement that I never raised the issue of insulin?”
The Delhi Chief Minister was arrested on March 21 by the ED in connection with a money-laundering case linked to the Delhi government’s now-scrapped excise policy and has been lodged in Tihar jail since April 1. The Delhi High Court will hear Mr Kejriwal’s petition challenging the summonses issued to him by the probe agency on May 15.