New Delhi [India], April 23 : Tihar Jail Director General (Prisons), Sanjay Beniwal, on Tuesday assured that food is provided on schedule to all inmates, and any delay is due to necessary checks.
While speaking about the Aam Aadmi Party's claim that the Delhi Chief Minister is not being given insulin, he claims that he oversees 900-1000 inmates with diabetes, and dismisses these concerns, saying, "These are not issues, but if people raise it for political issues, I do not enter into that."
"There is a fixed time for giving food and through a court order, he gets home food. If it takes 5 to 7 minutes till the time it reaches him after checking, it is bound to happen. Around 900-1000 inmates have diabetes...I am managing between 900-1000 patients every day out of the inmate population. For me, these are not issues but if people raise it for political issues, I do not enter into that," Tihar Jail Director General (Prisons), Sanjay Beniwal, told ANI.
He also revealed that each jail has a visiting judge to inspect and listen to inmates' grievances.
"Every jail has a visiting judge who checks whether everyone has the health facilities they should have, whether there is medicine, whether the place where the inmates sleep is clean, whether the bathroom is clean, and whether they have access to legal redressal. Every jail has an appointed visiting judge who checks and gives his report based on which corrections also happen, and he (the visiting judge) also listens to the inmates' grievances. So if there is a grievance, there is a process to write it, and we will process it," he told ANI.
Speaking on Arvind Kejriwal writing to the Tihar Jail Superintendent, the Tihar Jail Director General said, "There are 20,000 people living here with me, everyone has some or the other problem, some real, some perceived, but if there are problems, then we have to arrange for their redressal."
Earlier, Sunita Kejriwal, the wife of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, had earlier levelled allegations against the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre, claiming that every morsel being consumed by her husband is being monitored and attempts are being made to "kill" him in jail by denying him insulin.
Sunita Kejriwal has claimed that the Delhi Chief Minister is being denied insulin in jail, despite having taken it for the past 12 years. She has also alleged that there is a conspiracy to harm CM Kejriwal.
"Many people say politics is a very dirty thing, and it's true. There is a camera over his food, his every morsel is being monitored...He is a sugar patient, and he has been taking 50 units of insulin every day for the last 12 years. But he is not being given insulin in jail. They want to kill Delhi's CM," the wife of the AAP national convenor said.
Meanwhile, the Tihar Jail Administration submitted a report to the Delhi Lieutenant Governor on Monday regarding the health status of Kejriwal, who has been lodged in Tihar jail since April 1 this year.
According to the report, Kejriwal was on insulin for diabetes control. The report also called it "incorrect" to say that the Chief Minister was being denied insulin by jail authorities.
Earlier on Friday, Delhi's Rouse Avenue Court reserved an order on a plea moved by Kejriwal seeking direction from Tihar jail authorities to administer insulin and allow him to consult doctors through video conferencing daily for 15 minutes with respect to his acute diabetes and fluctuating blood sugar level.
Kejriwal was arrested on March 21 by the ED about the Delhi Excise Policy case. The trial court, on April 15, extended the judicial custody of Arvind Kejriwal until April 23.
The ED alleged that the Aam Adami Party is the major beneficiary of the proceeds of crime generated in the alleged liquor scam.