Jail Director General Sanjay Beniwal today said in the backdrop of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s allegation that Delhi’s Tihar Jail is like a city, but it does not function in a vacuum. His party has accused him of a conspiracy to assassinate him. Speaking to NDTV in an exclusive interview, Mr Beniwal said there are around 1,000 diabetic patients in Tihar and they are given food and medicine as per the advice of senior doctors, including from AIIMS and Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital.

“We usually face this kind of pressure, we are used to it, it is part of life,” he told NDTV.

Mr Kejriwal has gone to court alleging that he is being deprived of insulin since his arrest on March 21 in the Delhi liquor policy case. His request for a video call with a personal doctor has been rejected by the special Delhi court hearing the case.

Meanwhile, his Aam Aadmi Party has protested outside Tihar Jail.

Terming the allegations as “baseless”, Mr Beniwal said he would follow the court’s directions.

Mr Beniwal said, “Whatever allegations you are making, we have answered them very well in the court.” He said, “Whatever questions the court has asked us, we have answered them very well. We all accept what the court says. Why are they making all these allegations? It is they who should answer it.” ”

“Do you think that slow poisoning can be given in prison? Do you yourself think that it is possible?” Mr. Beniwal said.

He said, “Around 900 to 1000 prisoners in our jail are suffering from diabetes. Some are given medicines, some insulin, some need something else…our government-appointed senior doctors do all this.”

Explaining the current practice under the jail manual, he said that when someone’s illness is serious, we consult the referral hospital, which is outside the jail.

“Our referral hospitals include AIIMS, RML and other hospitals. This is a common process for all prisoners. There is no ABCD category for any particular prisoner,” he said.