AAP claims Arvind Kejriwal lost 8.5 kg, Tihar jail rebuts

New Delhi: Tihar jail sources on Monday said Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal had only lost 2 kg in prison, and he was being regularly monitored by a medical board of the All India Institute of Medical Sciencies or AIIMS. The response comes a day after Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party alleged on Sunday that the Bharatiya Janata Party was conspiring to harm the chief minister’s health by keeping him in jail and that he was not getting the necessary medical attention as a diabetic.

The unnamed sources told news agency PTI that the jail administration has written to the Delhi government’s home department regarding the allegations levelled by AAP ministers and leaders, saying that such a narrative “confuses and misleads the public”.

On Sunday, Delhi cabinet minister Atishi claimed that Arvind Kejriwal had “unexplained weight loss of 8.5 kg” since his arrest, adding that that his sugar level had dropped below 50 mg/dL more than five times in prison.

According to Arvind Kejriwal’s health report shared by the Tihar sources, her weighed 65 kg when he first came to prison on April 1 and 66 kg between April 8 and 29, PTI reported. When he returned to prison on June 2 after a 21-day bail, his weight was 63.5 kg, it added.

“On July 14, his weight was 61.5 kg. So, effectively, he lost 2 kg,” PTI quoted an official source as saying.