Sources in Tihar Jail on Monday countered the Aam Aadmi Party’s claims about Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s weight loss while in jail, stating that he has lost only 2 kg during the course of his imprisonment. AAP leaders had claimed on Sunday that the Chief Minister had lost 8.5 kg in the same period.
The sources also refuted the AAP’s claims that the Chief Minister’s health was deteriorating, adding that the was being monitored by an AIIMS medical board.
However, senior AAP leader Atishi said in a video statement, “Mr. Kejriwal’s sugar levels have fallen to dangerous levels five times. His sugar levels fell to 50. At sugar level of 50, a person can die in 20 to 30 minutes.”
She also alleged that the BJP had endangered Mr. Kejriwal’s life.
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Senior AAP leader Sanjay Singh said a report “leaked” by the prison authorities showed that Mr. Kejriwal lost weight and suffered multiple hypoglycemic episodes in jail due to which “something untoward” could happen.
In a report sent to the Home Department, Delhi Government, the Tihar Jail administration shared the AAP supremo’s vitals, stating that the AAP’s narrative was to “confuse and mislead the public”.
Mr. Kejriwal weighed 65 kg when he first came to prison on April 1 and 66 kg between April 8 and 29. When he returned to prison on June 2, after a 21-day bail, his weight was 63.5 kg and then on July 14, his weight was 61.5 kg. So, effectively, he lost 2 kg, jail sources stated.
They further alleged that if he had lost any weight, it was a deliberate move as he regularly returned portions of his meals despite receiving home-cooked food.
Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva, commenting on the matter, alleged that AAP leaders put out such rhetoric statements over the risk to Mr. Kejriwal’s life, his blood sugar level and weight loss every time a court date came around.
Mr. Sachdeva said people would want to ask Mr. Singh, Ms. Atishi and other AAP leaders who Mr. Kejriwal was losing weight when he was eating three home-cooked meals and taking medicines as per the advice of his own doctors.
Mr. Kejriwal was arrested by the ED on March 21, in a case related to the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy and lodged in Tihar jail on April 1. While he was granted bail in the ED case, he continued to be in jail after the Central Bureau of Investigation arrested him in the same case.
