Court seeks reply from Tihar jail authorities on Kejriwal kin's plea

A Delhi court today sought the response of the Tihar jail authorities on a plea of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's relative Vinay Bansal, arrested in connection with an alleged scam in the Public Works Department, claiming he was neither being allowed home food nor meet his family.

Metropolitan Magistrate Rashmi Gupta directed the jail authorities to file a reply tomorrow on the application moved by Bansal, a nephew of Kejriwal, alleging he was not being allowed to change clothes in the hospital, where he admitted on May 10, and claimed he was seriously ill.

The rules of jail manual have not been followed. He is not even being given water to drink, the plea filed by Bansal's counsel Madan Lal and Irshad said.

Meanwhile, the investigating officer sought a production warrant be issued for Bansal for tomorrow as he was not produced in the court for a second time today.

The magistrate also took on record the medical report from the jail officials that Bansal was not medically fit.

The court had yesterday issued a second production warrant for Bansal who was admitted to a hospital and sent to judicial remand after he fainted in the court room on May 10.

The bail application of Bansal has also been moved and it will be heard tomorrow.

On May 10, the court had rejected the application of the Anti-Corruption Branch for a three-day police remand of Bansal, saying he was not medically fit.

In a court room packed with lawyers and mediapersons, Bansal had fainted during the hearing and a stretcher was brought to take him to the ambulance stationed outside the court premises.

The public prosecutor had earlier argued that Bansal's custodial interrogation was necessary for digging out the true factual position in the case.

Opposing the remand, Bansal's counsel B S Joon had said the FIR was lodged in 2017 and since then no evidence has been found against the accused.

He had said the FIR has wrongly levelled allegations under the provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act which was meant for public servants and Bansal was not one.

Bansal, who is the son of Kejriwal's late brother-in-law Surender Bansal, was arrested on May 10 by the ACB.

Three FIRs, including one against a company run by Surender Bansal, were registered by the ACB in this case on May 9 last year.

Three companies, including Renu Constructions (owned by the Bansals, Kamal Singh and Pawan Kumar), were named in the FIRs.

In a complaint, Rahul Sharma, the founder of Roads Anti-Corruption Organisation (RACO), had alleged that Kejriwal and PWD minister Satyendra Jain misused their office for grant of contracts to Bansal. However, they were not named in the FIR.

The RACO, an organisation which claims to monitor construction projects in the national capital, had alleged that a firm linked to Bansal was involved in financial irregularities in building a drainage system in north-west Delhi.

It was also alleged that the bills sent to the PWD for unfinished works were "false and fabricated".