Former Delhi minister Manish Sisodia kept in Tihar wing with meditation cell
Sisodia had requested the court that he be kept in the meditation or vipassana cell inside the prison
Former Delhi deputy chief minister was lodged at Jail number 1 on Monday after a special CBI court sent the senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader in judicial custody till March 10.
According to jail officials, Sisodia was taken to Tihar from the Rouse Avenue Court on Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg in central Delhi. On completion of formalities, the AAP leader was assigned Jail number 1, where he will be kept with other prisoners.
Sisodia had requested the court that he be kept in the meditation or vipassana cell inside the prison. He had also asked the court to let him keep a pen, a diary and a copy of the Bhagwad Gita. The court had granted his request.
Senior jail officials said that Jail number.1 has a common room for meditation.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had arrested Sisodia on February 26 in connection with its probe into alleged irregularities in the framing and implementation of Delhi excise policy 2021-22.
Sanjay Baniwal, director general (prisons), said, “In view of Sisodia’s request seeking facility to perform meditation in jail, we have allotted him Jail No. 1 which has a common meditation hall where any inmate can perform vipassana, yoga or meditation during the stipulated time in the day. The former minister has also been allowed to keep a copy of the Bhagavad Gita, a diary, and a pen along with spectacles and some medicines prescribed by his doctors,” he said.
According to the prison authorities, Jail number 1 has a library, a playground and a music studio. It also has a vocational training centre for the inmates. “It is located on the outer periphery of the prison complex, while Jail number 7 (where Sisodia’s former cabinet colleague Satender Jain is lodged) is located in the centre of the complex, nearly 500 metres away from Jail number 1,” a junior jail official said, asking not to be named.
Sisodia had moved a bail application before the court on Friday, saying that no fruitful purpose would be served by keeping him in custody, and that all the other co-accused in the matter have been granted bail. The court has sought CBI’s reply to the bail application and has listed it for hearing on March 10.
The Aam Aadmi Party and the Delhi government have rejected the charges against Sisodia, and alleged that it was a ploy by the BJP-ruled Centre to target its political rivals.
