AAP, BJP lock horns as Delhi minister seen on camera getting massage in Tihar
The Enforcement Directorate(ED) had arrested Satyendar Jain in May this year under prevention of money laundering act (PMLA).
A purported video showing Delhi minister Satyendar Jain getting massage inside the city's Tihar jail has emerged as the latest flashpoint between the ruling Aam Aadmi Party in the national capital and the BJP. The clip has surfaced days after jail superintendent Ajit Kumar was suspended for allegedly circumventing rules to give special facilities to the AAP leader. The six-minute-long video clip, shared by news agency ANI, shows Jain getting a foot, back and head massage on different days. In one of the clips, said to be dated September 21, four people can be seen inside Jain's cell as the Delhi minister gets foot massage from a person.
HT has not been able to independently verify the authenticity of the video.
Tihar Jail is run by the Department of Delhi Prisons under the Government of Delhi.
BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla alleged that the video was proof of “violation of rules in a jail run by AAP government. ”
“Satyendra Jain was getting full VVIP Mazaa ? Massage inside Tihar Jail? Hawalabaaz who hasn’t got bail for 5 months get head massage !Violation of rules in a jail run by AAP Govt, (sic)” Poonawalla tweeted. “This is how official position abused for Vasooli & massage thanks to Kejriwal.”
Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said that the massage was part of physiotherapy recommended by doctors, alleging that BJP was “mocking illness” of a patient. Sisodia said that the video was leaked despite court's otherwise instructions to ED.
""Satyendar Jain has undergone two spine-injury operations. He has been prescribed regular physiotherapy by the doctor. Since Covid, there is a patch in his lungs which has not been cured yet," he tweeted.
AAP's Akshay Marathe, whose Twitter bio says ‘spokesperson-on-sabbatical’, said that every jail inmate “deserves privacy and dignity” and releasing videos to “score political points is pathetic.”
“Disgusting how Satyendar Jain, a 58-year-old man who has NOT been convicted is being harassed by BJP. Leaves a very bitter taste. All politics aside, every jail inmate deserves privacy and dignity. Releasing videos from inside a jail to score political points is pathetic,” Marathe tweeted.
The Enforcement Directorate(ED) arrested Jain in May this year under the prevention of money laundering act (PMLA). The central agency’s probe against Jain is based on a 2017 case of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), in which it was alleged that the AAP leader and his wife Poonam Jain had amassed disproportionate assets worth ₹1.47 crore between February 2015 and May 2017, which was 217.20 percent more than their known sources of income.
The AAP has maintained that Jain’s arrest is a case of political vendetta.