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Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal pushes back in ‘sugary’ jail diet row
ED earlier said Kejriwal was having mangoes & sweets, and drinking tea with sugar “to create a medical emergency to obtain sympathetic treatment from the court”
Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday approached a Delhi court asking that jail officials be ordered to administer him insulin, accusing authorities at the Tihar prison and Enforcement Directorate (ED) of depriving him of medication and of lying to the court that he was deliberately eating high-sugar foods to exacerbate his diabetes.
ED, in a submission on Thursday, said the CM was having mangoes and sweets and drinking tea with sugar “to create a medical emergency to obtain sympathetic treatment from the court”.
Kejriwal’s legal team hit back at these charges.
“Out of 48 meals, mangoes were given to him only three times… use of sugar being alleged is completely false, I use sugar-free in my tea… How petty can ED get? Their statements are completely false,” said senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for the Delhi CM.
In their submission on Friday, the CM’s lawyers rebutted the claims on the meals and contended that “it is shocking to suggest that a person would deliberately risk their life by causing an alarming hike in sugar levels for getting medical bail”.
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The Rouse Avenue court of special judge Kaveri Baweja reserved order on the plea but noted that Kejriwal had appeared to have deviated from the diet prescribed by doctors.
Kejriwal, who has type-2 diabetes, first moved a petition to be allowed to consult his doctors on April 16, which prompted the ED response on Thursday. On Friday, the CM’s lawyers likened ED’s submissions as an attempt to “do a media trial” by blaming his worsening blood sugar levels to his diet.
“This is done to pre-empt and make media news before the applicant reveals the serious lapse and medical negligence of jail Authorities in depriving applicant of life saving drug: insulin. This is also to get facility of home cooked food withdrawn from the applicant,” the lawyers contended.
Special public prosecutor (SPP) Zoheb Hossain, appearing for ED, opposed the application and said that all that he tried to submit on Thursday was that the diet given to Kejriwal did not match the regulated diet prescribed by the doctor.
Senior advocate Ramesh Gupta, also appearing for Kejriwal, interjected, saying: “Why should ED be heard? It is a matter of jail authorities as the person is in judicial custody and the counsel for jail authorities is here.”
“There is no reference to any sweet in the chart. The diet that has been prescribed by the doctor is a very regulated diet which has no co-relation with the sweets or sweet fruits. Therefore, it is directly related to the issue,” Hossain said, seeking time to file reply.
The court is likely to pronounce its order on April 22.
In the fresh contentions in court, lawyers representing Kejriwal rebutted the specific contentions by the investigation agency. For instance, on ED saying that the 55-year-old was eating mangoes and sweets, the defence said Kejriwal had the fruit only on three occasions out of the 48 meals he ate in prison and the last time he did so was on April 8. The sweets he had were sugar-free and sent with six meals.
The CM’s lawyer also said Kejriwal had only once eaten an aloo-puri meal, but ED cited it as an example of food that made his diabetes condition worse.
The real reason, the application stressed, was that “since his arrest on 21.03.2024, he has not been given insulin despite repeated requests, leading to his blood sugar levels spiking to alarming levels ranging from 230-320 mg/dL between April 12-17”.
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ED’s submissions in court showed that, on random testing, Kejriwal’s blood sugar levels were largely well above normal, going from 139mg/dL on April 1 (when he was moved to Tihar) to 202mg/dL on April 10, 280mg/dL on April 12, 276mg/dL on April 14, 243mg/dL on April 15.
The levels dipped to 130mg/dL on April 16 and 181mg/dl on April 17.
Doctors said a normal blood glucose level on a non-fasting test is between 125 and 140mg/dL.
Kejriwal’s health and his alleged ill-treatment in prison have been at the heart of a tussle between the AAP and ED since the chief minister’s arrest last month. He was sent to Tihar jail on April 1 and the court allowed him home-cooked food in accordance with the diet prescribed by his doctors.
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The counsel for Tihar informed court that when Kejriwal was brought to the jail, he said that he was taking insulin earlier but stopped a few months ago “Blood sugar levels have been maintained. He is not following the prescribed diet in the food being sent from home. He should follow the diet chart. If he has insulin now, sugar will drop, there have been some incidents of hike in sugar level otherwise it is being maintained,” Tihar’s counsel Yoginder Handoo said on Friday.
ED submitted that Kejriwal can be examined by an independent doctor from AIIMS and opposed his prayer for doctor consultation alleging that he had earlier misused the provisions for his legal consultation.
The special judge allowed ED and jail administration to file their responses by Saturday, while reserving the verdict. The court is likely to pronounce its order on April 22.
Kejriwal is the third AAP leader to be arrested in connection with the irregularities in the Delhi excise case after Delhi’s former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia and AAP MP Sanjay Singh. They have all denied charges and called the case a conspiracy to “finish the AAP”. Sanjay Singh was granted bail by the Supreme Court on April 2.
