Punjab CM Bhagwant to meet Kejriwal in Tihar jail on Monday

Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann is scheduled to meet his Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal at 12 pm in the afternoon on Monday following the discussion of Delhi and Punjab police on Friday over the security plan of their meeting to be held in Tihar jail.

The meeting will be held in the afternoon inside the ‘Mulakat Jangla’ under tight security, as Mann is provided with Z+ security cover, the jail officials said.  The ‘mulakat jangla’ is an iron mesh which separates the inmate from the visitor in a room inside the jail. A visitor and an inmate can talk to each other by sitting on different sides of the mesh.  Since his arrest, Kejriwal’s wife Sunita Kejriwal and his former personal secretary Bibhav Kumar have met him thrice in jail.

The Punjab CM was expected to meet the AAP chief on Wednesday but could not as authorities cited ‘security reasons’. The meeting will be held in the afternoon inside the ‘Mulakat Jangla’ under tight security, as Mann is provided with Z+ security cover, the jail officials said.

The meeting discussing the security arrangement of the meet of Mann and Kejriwal in Tihar jail started at 11 am at the office of the Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Rajiv Parihar in Tihar and concluded around 3 pm. Punjab Additional Director General of Police AK Pandey and an Assistant Commissioner of Police officer were present in the meeting led by Director General (Tihar) Sanjay Baniwal.

It was held to make security arrangements and complete codal formalities, as mandated in Delhi Prison Rules, to arrange a meeting between Mann and Kejriwal.

 “Prison Department, Delhi has fixed an advance security liaison meeting with Addl. Director General (Police), Punjab, Delhi Police and Tihar Administration on 12.04.2024 at 11 am in the office of Deputy Inspector General (Prisons) at Tihar Prison Headquarters, Delhi,” a press statement issued by the jail authorities said.

Mann along with AAP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh had earlier sought time from the Tihar administration to meet the Delhi chief minister who is lodged in Tihar’s jail number 2 in a money laundering case linked to the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy and will be in judicial custody till April 15.

Kejriwal has given the names of six people, including the Punjab chief minister, whom he wants to meet in jail. He was arrested on March 21 by the Enforcement Directorate.