New Delhi:
AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sandeep Pathak on Monday said Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, arrested in the Delhi liquor policy scam case, will call two ministers to jail each week and review the progress of the work in their departments.
Mr Pathak and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann met Mr Kejriwal in Tihar on Monday.
Arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on March 21, Mr Kejriwal is currently in judicial custody and is lodged in Tihar jail. A person in judicial custody cannot sign documents which are political in nature.
DG (Prisons) Sanjay Baniwal, in an interaction with PTI editors here, said, “Only two things the person is allowed to sign — one is his legal papers or a complaint but those should be non-political in nature or about his situation, or letters to family members or property papers.”
Mr Pathak, who is the Aam Aadmi Party’s National General Secretary (Organization), at a press conference conveyed the chief minister’s plan of action for reviewing the functioning of various departments in the coming days.
“From next week, the chief minister will call two ministers to jail every week and there he will review the work of their departments and give them guidelines and directions,” he said.
“We will undertake whatever legal process are needed (to make this happen). From next week, when the ministers meet, the government will start functioning from jail in a proper format,” Mr Pathak said.
The AAP National General Secretary (Organization) said Mr Kejriwal asked him to convey to the party MLAs to go door to door in their areas and meet people to understand their concerns.
“The MLAs should try and solve any issue that the people are facing. Mr Kejriwal said the MLAs will have to cover up his absence by working twice as hard as before,” he said.
At the press conference when Mr Pathak was asked about Mr Kejriwal’s absence from the election campaign, he said, “Poll campaigns are going on in all states. All people in the party have become even more motivated. People who used to work for 10 hours are now working for 15 hours. Those who worked for 15 hours are now working for 18 hours. Most of the people of our party are emotionally attached to Kejriwal and this feeling is encouraging them to work more.”
Mr Kejriwal on Monday did not get any interim relief from the Supreme Court which sought a response from the Enforcement Directorate by April 24 on his plea challenging his arrest in a money-laundering case stemming from the alleged liquor policy scam.
Responding to a question on it, Mr Pathak said, “We have full faith in the judiciary and hope that Arvind Kejriwal will get bail soon. Because in the end, truth prevails. There is a complete process of law, and everyone has to go through it. In such a situation, whatever decision will be taken by the judiciary, we will accept unanimously.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
