NEW DELHI: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday said "Tihar Jail comes under Delhi government, whose chief minister is Arvind Kejriwal. So is he conspiring to kill himself. No question at all of the Centre's role."
In an interview to News18 group editor-in-chief rahul Joshi, he rubbished the claims of Kejriwal and his wife Sunita that there was a conspiracy to kill him in jail. When further questioned about claims that the DG Prisons reports to Delhi Police, Shah said, “Not at all. Prisons report straight to the Delhi government.”
When asked about the Centre’s role in it, he said, “No question at all.” On the Supreme Court’s questioning of the timing of the arrest of Kejriwal by Enforcement Directorate, Shah said, “ED will explain that before the Supreme Court. If they had appeared [before the agency] after the first summons, they would have been arrested six months before the elections. Many times summonses were sent, but they did not come.”
Kejriwal, who has been in judicial custody since April 1 and will remain there till May 7, was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on March 21, after the Delhi High Court refused to grant him protection from coercive action by the ED. He was arrested under stringent sections of the PMLA for his alleged involvement in money laundering linked to the now scrapped Delhi Excise policy. His party has been claiming that the arrest was illegal and that he was not being given adequate medical attention in jail.
Justice Sanjiv Khanna of the Supreme Court asked on Tuesday: “Liberty is very exceedingly important, you can’t deny that. The last question is with regard to the timing of the arrest, which they have pointed out, the timing of the arrest, soon before the general elections.”
