NEW DELHI: Top officials of the Delhi Prison Department will meet officials of Punjab Police in the national capital on Friday to discuss the security arrangements for the high-profile meeting between the Punjab Chief Minister and his Delhi counterpart, with the latter currently lodged in Tihar Jail.
“Prison Department, Delhi has fixed an advance security liaison meeting with Addl. Director General (Police), Punjab, Delhi Police and Tihar Administration on April 12 at 11 am in the office of Deputy Inspector General (Prisons) at Tihar Prison Headquarters, Delhi,” a senior prison department official told this newspaper.
Earlier, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had sought time from Tihar administration to meet Arvind Kejriwal, lodged in Tihar’s Jail No.2.
The official further said that the meeting of Delhi Police with their Punjab counterparts is for making security arrangements and completion of protocol formalities, as mandated in Delhi Prison Rules, to arrange a meeting between the two chief ministers.
Earlier in the day, AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh alleged that he and the Punjab Chief Minister wanted to meet Kejriwal in jail but the meeting was cancelled by the prison authorities, even though a token number had been issued for it.
Chief minister and AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal was arrested by the ED on March 21. He is in judicial custody till April 15.
The ED has accused Kejriwal of being involved in the “entire conspiracy of the Delhi liquor scam, in drafting and implementation of the policy, for favouring and benefiting the quid pro receiving kickbacks and eventually using part of proceeds of crime generated out of the scheduled offence in the election campaign for Goa Assembly elections”.
Reacting over Sanjay Singh’s allegations, the Delhi BJP said the entirety of the AAP, including MP Sanjay Singh, is disappointed and disheartened after the Delhi High Court verdict denying relief to Kejriwal against his arrest by ED.
“Due to the pressure building on Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal with intensified demands for his resignation, now AAP MP Sanjay Singh is indulging in political rhetoric to divert attention from the issue. But he will have to understand that the public will fight on streets to demand Kejriwal’s resignation,” Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva said.