A Delhi court on Friday allowed Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, arrested in the liquor policy case, to meet his family members for half an hour, receive medical treatment and a special diet as per his doctor’s advice during his six-day Enforcement Directorate (ED) custody.
Kejriwal, who became the first sitting Chief Minister in independent India to be arrested on Thursday, will be permitted to meet his wife Sunita and his personal secretary Bibhav Kumar for half an hour between 6 pm and 7 pm. He can also meet his advocates Mohammad Irshad and Vivek Jain during the stipulated period.
The court also accepted a separate plea from Kejriwal, which stated that he is suffering from hyperglycemia (high blood sugar) and other medical issues. It said the Chief Minister can have a medically-recommended diet.
If the ED is not able to provide special diet as per the doctor’s prescription, Kejriwal is also allowed to have home-cooked food, the court ruled.
Kejriwal will remain in ED custody on March 28. He will be produced before the court at 2 pm on that day.
The AAP supremo was produced in the trial court after he withdrew from the Supreme Court his plea against his arrest by the ED in the liquor policy case.
During the hearing, the probe agency alleged that Kejriwal received several crores of rupees as kickbacks from the ‘South group’ for formulating and implementing the now-scrapped Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22.
The agency claimed that the money trail showed that Rs 45 crore ‘kickback’ used in the 2022 Goa assembly elections came from four hawala routes.
Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who appeared for Arvind Kejriwal, contended that the probe agency needed to show the necessity to arrest the Chief Minister. Singhvi argued that the power of arrest and the necessity of arrest were two different things.
The 55-year-old leader’s arrest drew angry reactions from AAP, which accused the BJP-led government of hatching a “political conspiracy” ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. Both Kejriwal and the party have said that he will remain the Chief Minister and “run the government from jail if the need be”.
Source Agencies
