NEW DELHI: Former Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi Manish Sisodia had been lodged alone in a cell earmarked for senior citizens in jail number 1 of Tihar Jail, prison sources said on Tuesday. “As of now he is not sharing his cell with anyone but that may change in the future,” sources told this newspaper.They said several dreaded criminals lodged in ward no. 9 happened to be his immediate neighbours in the prison.
The 51-year-old AAP leader was on Monday sent to 14-day judicial custody till March 20 by a Rouse Avenue court in the so-called excise policy scam case. The court had accepted Sisodia’s plea to be allowed to keep a copy of the Bhagwad Gita, a diary his spectacles, apart from his prescribed medicines, in prison. The court also asked prison authorities to consider Sisodia’s request to be kept in a vipassana cell.
Tihar Jail sources said that after he reached the prison on Monday afternoon, Sisodia was first asked to undergo some medical tests and then provided with a ‘Sparsh Kit’, which includes toothpaste, soap, a toothbrush, and other items of daily needs.“His medical reports were normal,” a prison official said.
On his first day in the prison, around 7-7.30 pm in the evening, Sisodia was given basic food like chapati, rice and sabzi which he ate.Meanwhile, on Tuesday, a team of the Enforcement Directorate for the first time questioned the AAP leader in connection with the laundering of the kickback money which was allegedly generated by the deliberate tweaking of the Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22.
It has been alleged that the policy led to windfall gains to certain liquor traders who routed back the money to politicians, government servants and middlemen as bribes.According to sources, the ED team reached the Tihar Jail around 12 pm and left the prison around 6 pm after questioning Sisodia for over 5 hours.